British Music Rights welcomes and fully endorses today’s joint statement from our member organisations, the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters and the Music Publishers Association, reiterating their position as to the key principles guiding a solution to pan European licensing.

As all relevant parties are aware, European collective rights management is an incredibly complex issue, and one for which there is no immediate “magic bullet” solution.

However, it is our shared belief that any workable solution must have rightsholders’ choice as its founding principle.

This is imperative. The work of composers, songwriters and publishers underpins the creative music economy. It therefore follows that any process of rights management should start and end with their creative endeavours.

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The full joint statement reads as follows: 

A joint statement from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters and the Music Publishers Association

The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters and the Music Publishers Association are aware that the EU Observer has organised a conference entitled "Creative Rights and Cultural Diversity" and are holding sessions that include neither composers nor publishers. On behalf of British composers and publishers we are issuing today the following statement:

The licensing of the use of music on a national basis is complex. Finding a solution for the licensing of music on a pan European basis is even more complex. Rome was not built in a day and a radical change and overhaul of the licensing structure across Europe cannot be achieved by revolution overnight but evolution over a period of time.

In recognition of our position as representatives of creators and other rightsholders, we the Academy and MPA are determined to reiterate our support for the fundamental principle that composers, songwriters and their publishers have the right to determine the basis upon which on line rights in music may be granted throughout the EEA.

We are equally determined to facilitate the development of the online market place by making our rights available to the providers of online music services (and our music available to consumers) on terms to be agreed either directly with such providers or, more probably, via the collection society or societies of our choice.

The Academy and the Music Publishers Association seek a solution which takes full account of the need to ensure that composers and publishers continue to flourish in a competitive market in the interest of maintaining Europe’s rich and diverse culture.

Composers and publishers have:

• the right to determine the commercial terms upon which their music is licensed
• the right to decide who shall grant such licence

Chris Green, Chief executive, British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, and Stephen Navin, Chief executive, MPA.

Notes:

The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters is the voice of the composer and songwriter, regularly talking to UK and EU politicians, civil servants and government agencies, engaging with other areas of the music industry and campaigning to protect the value of copyright and to create a better environment in which music writers can flourish.
www.britishacademy.com

The Music Publishers Association exists to safeguard the interests of music publishers and the writers signed to them. It
provides them with a forum and a collective voice, offers them a range of practical services, represents their interests to the wider music industry, the media and the public and works to inform and to educate the wider public in the importance and
value of copyright. www.mpaonline.org.uk