IMRO calls for establishment of National Music Strategy to protect the rights of musicians

A new report, titled The Socio-Economic Value of Music To Ireland 2017 commissioned by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and produced by Deloitte, has been released today and finds that the overall contribution of the music industry in Ireland stands at €700 million, and that employment in the music industry stands at over 13,000.

According to IMRO, these findings underline the opportunity for further growth in the sector through the development of a National Music Strategy- similar to the Irish Film Board.

IMRO sees this strategy will be rooted in four key areas:

Coordination & collaboration through the establishment of a cross-Government music grouping to work with a cross sectoral Industry Advisory Panel to address barriers to growth in the sector;

Concentration on copyright to help ensure a fair return for music creators, crucial at a time when the music copyright landscape has changed utterly as a result of technology and the industry is under threat from the extremely low level of return to writers and performers, from platform services;

Creative skills development through advanced training and education services that will ensure musicians realise their potential, and that the ‘business of music’ is understood;

Compensation that is adequate to address income uncertainty associated with work in the creative and cultural industries – perhaps the single greatest barrier faced by entrepreneurs in the sector.

A Fair Return For Musicians

Behind the Concentration on copyright strand, there is an onus on making sure that platforming sites, such as Facebook, YouTube and Google, give appropriate revenue returns to writers and performers based on the number of times their songs are played on these websites.

At the briefing, IMRO CEO Victor Finn noted that while musicians have consistently been among the first to embrace new technologies, the technology sector has caused massive problems in terms of how musicians can receive royalties for their music. Steve Walls, who is an ambassador of this report, indicated the dearth of revenue he received by YouTube for a particular song, compared with how many times that song was streamed.

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This has been an ongoing issue for IMRO and one that they believe can be solved by fairer legislation which will take away the "safe harbour laws" that allow YouTube to stream music, but not fairly remunerate consumers.

IMRO has been lobbying MEPs for change at a European level, along with music rights organisations from across the continent. "We've had good sounding from the European Parliament on this," said Victor Finn. "They've acknowledged that there's an issue there to be addressed and I think that's a major step forward. Changing these laws won't change everything for musicians, but it's a necessary first step."

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National Music Strategy

Noting the significant contribution of the music industry to the Irish economy - as many as 13,130 jobs in Ireland are a direct result of the music industry - IMRO is calling on the government to form a National Music Strategy .

"There's successful models of countries that do this," said Victor. "It has worked very well in Canada and New Zealand, where such strategies have been well funded and well connected internationally. It is an area where a little can go a long way.

"Because the nature of the music industry, we have a lot of performers but there's so many different strands of the industry that they don't have access to one central place that can give them information. We want to provide that.

"There's a huge opportunity for the industry here, without needing a huge amount of funds in delivering it. The other option - doing nothing - means that we're in danger of performers only thinking about music in terms of a semi-professional career. That would be a real shame to the industry. I think there's a strong future for the music industry, but we need these strategies to deliver."

Speaking with Hot Press after the event, Labour TD Joan Burton threw her support behind IMRO's calls for a National Music Strategy.

"I'm very strongly supportive of the National Music Strategy. Obviously music and performance are very strongly part of our heritage and are a cornerstone of our arts culture in Ireland. The problem, as we've seen, is that the revenue for artists is just disappearing from under their feet and, while for some people, there might be alternative, we really don't want the situation were musicians are forced to be part-time. We'd like to see artists fairly rewarded for their creations and performance.

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"I think the next big then would be to look to Brussels and make the case that people who are creating have to make some income in order to be able to continue to create. We have to wake up be realistic about the work of musicians."

To find out more details about IMRO and the new report, see here.