British Music Rights (BMR), the umbrella body representing the interests of music writers and publishers across the UK, has expressed concern that a European Parliament report adopted today is a ‘hotchpotch of conflicting provisions that will neither help nor hinder market developments in online music licensing’.

The Parliament’s report comments on a European Commission Recommendation published in October 2005 on new systems for licensing music around Europe – and on which the Parliament felt it should have been consulted prior to publication.

But, while the Commission’s text laid out a clear strategy to use competition between collective licensing bodies to boost e-commerce in music and create greater efficiencies for both the music community and commercial users of music, the European Parliament’s report is confused and contradictory.

BMR Chief Executive Emma Pike, said: “The Commission’s Recommendation in 2005 prompted an enthusiastic response from the majority of our members, many of whom have since been actively engaged in devising and launching new licensing models fit for the digital age. 18 months later, the European Parliament calls on the Commission to look again at this area but without any clarity as to how or why. The Parliament’s report is a hotchpotch of conflicting provisions that will neither help nor hinder market developments in online music licensing.”

Music Publishers Association Head Stephen Navin said: “We welcome certain aspects of the Parliament’s report – particularly where it stresses the need to sustain the value of music in a digital world. However, the report in parts suggests that both commercial users of music and rights owners should be able to choose the vehicle through which music licensing occurs. This is akin to asking two engineers to start building a bridge from opposite sides of troubled waters on the off chance that they might link up. It is unworkable.”

David Ferguson, Chair of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, argues that “competition between collecting societies on price would be a downgrading of authors’ rights and would do incalculable harm to both economic and cultural diversity in Europe.”

The European Commission will be reviewing the online music market later in the year to see how the new business models are working for the 50,000 composers, songwriters and music publishers - large and small – that British Music Rights represents.

Crispin Evans, General Counsel of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, added: ‘The Commission’s review will be the time when industry and officials will truly be able to gauge the impact of the Recommendation on things like cultural diversity and long-term consumer choice. Yes, the Parliament's report is certainly a contribution to the debate but it comes too early to make any real assessment of how the Recommendation is working”.

For further information, please contact British Music Rights on 020 7306 4446 or email: britishmusic@bmr.org.

Notes to editors

1. British Music Rights (BMR) was established in 1996 to speak on behalf of the UK’s songwriting, composing and music publishing community. BMR comprises four member organisations: the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society (MCPS), the Music Publishers Association (MPA) and the Performing Right Society (PRS).
   
2. BMR acts as a single consensus voice for more than 50,000 composers, songwriters, music publishers, and their UK collecting societies.