Consultation on Music Streaming

The UK Parliament Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee are asking for responses to a consultation on music streaming in order to inform future policy changes. This is extremely important for the UK music industry as a whole as the technological changes that have occurred over the past few decades have fundamentally altered the way a lot of people access music. Certainly in the time that I’ve been making music I have observed the changes and struggled with the challenge of seeing how it would be possible to gain a decent revenue from my recordings. I also know many other musicians who have had to adapt to the changes in order to maintain their income and the recent closure of many music venues has really had a serious impact on them.

Photo by Spencer Imbrock on Unsplash

I decided to write a response to this consultation and have used the guidelines of the call for evidence which are listed below:

• What are the dominant business models of platforms that offer music streaming as a service?
• Have new features associated with streaming platforms, such as algorithmic curation of music or company playlists, influenced consumer habits, tastes, etc? (Note: I have written an essay on this topic)
• What has been the economic impact and long-term implications of streaming on the music industry, including for artists, record labels, record shops, etc?
• How can the Government protect the industry from knock-on effects, such as increased piracy of music? Does the UK need an equivalent of the Copyright Directive?
• Do alternative business models exist? How can policy favour more equitable business models?

If anyone would like to have a look at my draft response or would like to contribute their own thoughts to it so we can make a joint response as individuals (rather than as an organisation) then the document is on Dropbox Paper.

I have a copy of the original so don’t worry about making edits but if you do it would be good to know who has contributed and also please be respectful of peoples’ contributions. If you would like to add something please make sure it is well considered.

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

Just to let you know that the deadline is 6pm on Monday 16 November 2020 and I want to have a final version ready a few days before the deadline in case there are any problems with uploading it.

If you want to do your own response or want more info about the consultation on music streaming direct from the UK Parliament’s website then the link is below:

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/646/economics-of-music-streaming/

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