The Stage

BACS accuses authorities of risking artists’ livelihoods

Published Tuesday 30 May 2006 at 15:05 by Nuala Calvi

British Academy of Composers and Songwriters chairman David Ferguson has attacked the UK and EU governments for treating music like a “product” and endangering income from royalties.

Ferguson used his opening speech at this year’s Ivor Novello Awards to warn that an investigation currently underway by European competition authorities into royalty collection organisations threatens bodies such as the Performing Right Society.

The Directorate-General for Competition is looking into a complaint by broadcaster RTL that it has to go to more than one collection society in order to be able to air music across Europe and could decide to impose fines on collection organisations of up to 10% of their annual income.

Ferguson said: “The European Competition authorities are busy digging into the collection societies - they seem to believe that they are evil monopolies ripping off the downtrodden European consumers.

“They can’t see that PRS is a collection of its 38,000 writer and 3,700 publisher members, many of whom earn little or nothing and in doing this not only are they endangering our livelihoods but in a perverse twist they will actually reduce the choice available to the consumer.”

Ferguson also criticised the UK government for failing to talk to the music industry as part of the current Gowers Review into intellectual property laws.

He told The Stage: “The whole way government views the creative industries is at stake in the review, yet they are not asking questions about creativity, just about finance and money.

“If the government wants the UK to be a hub of creativity they need to think about introducing legislation making it illegal to issue unfair contracts to musicians and to protect their moral rights. Most contracts in the UK oblige creators to waive their moral rights.”

A spokesperson from the Gowers Review responded: “The review has received a wide range of responses from stakeholders including artists, industry and academics. We will continue to engage with these stakeholders in the run up to the completion of the final report in autumn 2006.”