The European Union (EU) is advocating for music streaming platforms to pay artists a higher compensation, in order to ensure fairness compared to the popular record labels and artists. This move comes as concerns about insufficient streaming royalties paid to artists as well as possibly biased algorithms used in music recommendation.
The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution addressing these concerns and highlighting the need for regulations in the music streaming sector.
Currently, there are no existing European Union rules that properly regulate music streaming platforms, even though it is the most common way to consume music nowadays. The EU aims to rectify this situation by proposing comprehensive changes within the industry. The resolution aims to promote smaller artists and ensure that underpaid performers are fairly compensated. It also intends to prevent European musical works from being buried down by the increasingly overwhelming amount of audio content continuously uploaded to streaming services.
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In addition, the European Parliament has called for the revision of outdated royalty rates, which often require artists to accept little to no revenue in exchange for better exposure. To further promote artists in the EU, the proposition includes the consideration of imposing possible quotas for European musical works.
The resolution also addresses concerns related to artificial intelligence (AI) in the music streaming industry. Streaming companies like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music are being urged to reveal information if Artificial Intelligence has helped to create songs and tracks included in their library, combat “deepfake” music that imitates human artists’ work without explicit permission, and be transparent about its various music recommendation algorithms. This transparency is important to ensure that top record labels and major artists are not unduly favored and better compensated compared to smaller artists and labels in the industry.
Rapporteur Ibán García del Blanco emphasized that the concerns of European content creators are at the forefront of the resolution. The EU aims to prioritize cultural diversity and ensure that authors are fairly compensated and credited for their work. To achieve this, the resolution calls for transparent algorithms and recommendation software utilized by music streaming platforms, as well as the ethical use of AI tools.
Via: The Verge