Gwen Stefani and Bruno Mars ask EU to change copyright laws

Singers Gwen Stefani and Bruno Mars have urged the EU to alter copyright laws that allow services like YouTube to profit from their music.

Stefani and Mars are among more than 1,000 artists that have signed a letter sent to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.

According to Bloomberg, the artists outlined an alleged discrepancy between how many people listen to their music on the video sharing website and how much money is paid to artists.

The letter said: “The future is jeopardised by a substantial ‘value gap’ caused by user upload services such as Google’s YouTube that are unfairly siphoning value away from the music community and its artists and songwriters.

“We urge you to take action now to create a fair playing field for artists and rights owners,” the letter added.

Taylor Swift and Sir Paul McCartney also signed a petition on June 21, asking for reform of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US.

Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Lady Gaga and Abba are also signatories of the most recent letter.