‘Heads I win, tails YouLose’, says music coalition seeking fairer IP deals

Industry group the musicFIRST Coalition has announced the start of a new campaign and website to “unite music creators in support of their IP rights”.

The group aims to “activate artists” by campaigning for radio stations to pay more to air the music they use and force online platforms such as YouTube and Spotify to “play it straight with music creators”.

“Google hides behind its legal ‘safe harbour’ to make billions selling ads around unlicensed copies of music,” the coalition said in a statement.

“It’s a classic ‘heads I win, tails YouLose’ strategy,” it added, in an apparent reference to YouTube. “Music creators can accept much lower payments forced on them by Google, or their music will just end up on YouTube anyway.”

As part of the campaign, the group is to launch a digital advertising initiative to encourage music artists to share their stories online and send messages to members of Congress who represent them to ask for support.

The musicFIRST Coalition was founded in 2007 and its executive director Chris Israel said the group’s work is needed due to “outdated laws”.

He said: “It is a very exciting time and the ways that we are listening to music are changing rapidly.

“Unfortunately, many laws remain outdated and often fail to protect music creators by denying them fair pay for their hard work. Our new campaign is focused on empowering music creators to advocate for the essential and enduring value of their works.”

This was first published on  Trademarks and Brands Online.

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