Streaming: help us change the game!
Whilst music streaming businesses develop at a quick pace, performers are still not rewarded fairly — if at all — when their performances are exploited online.
Together with three other international organisations (AEPO-ARTIS, FIA and IAO), FIM is involved in the Fair Internet campaign, which is asking for the introduction in EU law of a fair and equitable remuneration to be paid to performers every time their performances are used online.
This campaign needs your support. Here is what you are requested to do
— Sign the campaign petition and share it on social networks.
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Fair Internet | Artists meet European MPs
The work of the European Parliament on the proposed European Directive on copyright in the digital single market is reaching its end: after the opinion committees, the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) will be stating its position on 21 June on the text which will be submitted to a vote of the European Parliament, in principle during the coming weeks.
The Parliament’s CULT (Culture) and ITRE (Industry) Committees have already come out in favour of the introduction, for performers, of a non-transferable, collectively-administered right to remuneration.
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Tidal suspected of huge fraud
Launched in Sweden in 2014, the Tidal music streaming service has since 2015 belonged to the Project Panther Ltd Company, owned by rapper Jay‑Z married to singer Beyoncé.
Competing with platforms such as Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music, Tidal underscores a more equitable redistribution of its revenues in favour of artists and the availability of part of its catalogue in MQA format, a new standard aimed at an audiophile clientele.
While Tidal’s profitability perspectives are more uncertain than ever, a report from the Center for Cyber and Information Security (CCIS) from the Science Faculty of Norway (the country where Tidal’s parent company is located) indicates that Tidal allegedly allocated 320 million false listenings to two albums: Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo and Beyoncé’s Lemonade.
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Senegal | AMS is changing everything for the music sector
In keeping with the meeting held in March 2017, FIM and AMS organised a new workshop in Dakar from 14 to 16 May 2018, within the scope of the regional programme for union training backed by Swedish confederation Union to Union. On this occasion, visits to the Ministry of Labour, employers and ILO helped define a coherent strategy towards concluding collective agreements and making headway along gender equality lines.
The workshop, which opened with a speech from the Minister of Culture, was also attended by a representative from UNESCO’s Dakar Office and a representative from ILO-ACTRAV.
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The FIM-Pearle* hands-on guide to CITES is now available
FIM and Pearle* are publishing a guide which tells you all you need to know (or practically) on administrative obligations linked to the implementation of CITES
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) imposes a certain number of obligations on those travelling with an object which, wholly or partially, comes from a protected animal or plant species. Musical instruments containing ivory, ebony, rosewood or a species belonging to the Dalbergiae family are concerned by these measures.
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Streaming: pro-rata vs user-centric distribution models
First published on the SML website
More for few or fewer for more – The results of a comparative study on pro rata and user-centric distribution models
Currently, the money goes to the most listened tracks instead of being allocated in accordance with the consumer’s choices
The study commissioned by Finnish music organizations explored the differences between the pro rata model favoring the most listened tracks and being in use in streaming services, and the alternative user-centric model based on individual consumer’s choices.
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EU | Rights of self-employed workers
A workshop organised by ETUC is considering solutions for restrictions imposed on self-employed workers by national competition authorities
In Amsterdam, on 14 February 2018, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) organised its third thematic workshop on self-employed workers, with the active help of EAEA. The meeting focused on self-employed workers who, in a certain number of countries, are deprived of the benefit of collective agreements as a result of competition law.
The workshop brought together representatives of union confederations from all over Europe, jurists and specialists from the International Labour Organization and the Council of Europe.
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Guatemala | FIM Seminar for Central America and the Caribbean
By Ananay Aguilar
On 19 – 21 December 2017, FIM held a sub-regional seminar in Guatemala City for musicians’ unions in Central America and the Caribbean in the framework of a regional project funded by Swedish organisation Union To Union, with support from SMF. The event brought together representatives from Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panamá and Dominican Republic. The local group, organised by Gilmar Mejía from Musicartes, consisted of enthusiastic leaders drawn from the whole country for a new musicians’ union, in addition to representatives to other, already established, music organisations.
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Africa | Sub-regional workshop on gender equality
This FIM meeting focusing on gender equality brought together union representatives from eleven English-speaking African countries
From 20 to 22 November 2017 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, FIM and the Tanzanian Urban Musicians’ Association (TUMA) organised an exchange and training workshop on gender equality in the music sector, which had financial backing from Union to Union. This was the second African meeting after a first workshop in Dakar in January 2016. The meeting took place in the presence and with the active support of Union to Union and SMF representatives.
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