2 November 2016

Authors’ societies sign two major deals this week with YouTube and SoundCloud

It has been an exciting week for a number of GESAC members, as negotiations between German member GEMA and YouTube finally paid off with a licensing agreement. On the same day, ICE, an online rights licensing hub for PRS (UK), STIM (Sweden), and GEMA (Germany), announced it had signed a licensing agreement with SoundCloud.

On the deal with SoundCloud, ICE Licensing Commercial Director Ben McEwen said: “The deal with SoundCloud marks another significant step forward as ICE continues to work to simplify multi-territory licensing for the benefit of rightsholders and digital music service providers alike; we are delighted to welcome SoundCloud as a licensee.”

Read more here.

On striking a deal with GEMA, Dr Harald Heker, CEO of the German authors’ society said: “After seven years of tough negotiations the conclusion of this contract with YouTube marks a milestone for GEMA and its members. We remained true to our position that authors should also get a fair remuneration in the digital age, despite the resistance we met. It is crucial that the licensing agreement that we have now signed covers both the future and the past. By reaching this agreement, we can secure the royalties for our members. »

Dr Heker warned that GEMA and YouTube still hold diverging legal positions, despite striking a deal, and added that “a modern copyright needs to be created which enables music creators to claim their financial share in the digital value chain.”

Read GEMA’s press release here.
Read the Q&A on the deal here.

Véronique Desbrosses, General Manager of GESAC said: “Platforms services like YouTube or SoundCloud are among the dominant players on the online music market and it is only fair that they remunerate authors for the works that they provide access to. This confirms that European law needs clarification to ensure that there is a strong and clear legal framework for the fair remuneration of authors online throughout Europe in the years to come.”

Find out more about the ongoing copyright review and GESAC’s position concerning platform services here.

Policies

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence brings about many new opportunities for our lives, including in the field of culture and creativity, but its applications also raise a number of ethical and legal questions due to their wide-spread uncontrolled and unchecked usage.

Policies

Music Streaming

Music streaming has unquestionably become the predominant means of enjoying music, replacing traditional physical media and expanded far beyond the live sector by providing user-friendly, high quality, and affordable access to the largest possible repertoire anytime, anywhere, online, or offline.

Songs and compositions are at the heart of this thriving market, which counts 524 million users on subscription-based music services globally, reaches more than 2 billion users including the streaming on UGC platforms, and offers more than 70 million tracks from approximately 8 million artists.

Yet, the authors and composers cannot benefit adequately from this success, and the debate over unfairness of this market is gaining traction across Europe and around the world.

There is a need to look more closely at how songwriters and composers are connected to this thriving economy and what can be done to improve their currently neglected situation.

Read below to find out more about the Music Streaming market.

Policies

Buy-out contracts: a dangerous threat to European creators

European music creators (composers, lyricists etc.) are being forced to forsake thousands of euros in future earnings by draconian ‘work made for hire’ (WMH) and buy-out contracts.

Online audiovisual services and broadcasters that are mainly US-based are forcing music creators to accept such contracts, which enforce a one-time payment in exchange for their rights.

Given the worldwide popularity of shows and series on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney etc., and their replay value, the audiovisual market represents an important revenue stream for creators. Soundtracks alone are part and parcel of series and often attract a similar amount of popularity, massively boosting sales, streams and the worldwide fanbase of their authors.

Read below to find out how video on demand (VOD) platforms and broadcasters are circumventing EU law and what can be done about it.

Policies

Authors’ societies & the collective management model

Authors’ societies are hugely beneficial to both authors (creators), users (platforms and services), and the broader public.

Beyond benefiting these different groups, authors’ societies also support the broader cultural ecosystem by funding and promoting cultural and creative initiatives.

Below are five key benefits to authors’ societies and the collective management model.

Policies

The Copyright Directive

In April 2019, the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was formally adopted, a change that will positively transform authors’ rights throughout the EU. Each member state now has until 7 June 2021 to transpose the Directive into their respective national law.

This reform is an opportunity to address pressing issues for authors in the Digital Single Market and will promote the growth of Europe’s creative and cultural industries (CCIs) – a major driver of Europe’s economy.

One of the biggest achievements of this new piece of legislation was to address the
‘Transfer of Value’ problem, a priority issue for all European creators.

Below are some of the Directive’s key areas that will affect creators and those who profit from their work.