Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Account
Write for us
USA Wire
  • News
    • Politics
    • Sports
    • World
  • Business
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Marketing
  • Culture
    • Lifestyle
    • Celebrity
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Gaming
  • Sports
  • Health
    • Food
    • Fitness
  • Crypto
  • Technology
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Politics
    • Sports
    • World
  • Business
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Marketing
  • Culture
    • Lifestyle
    • Celebrity
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Gaming
  • Sports
  • Health
    • Food
    • Fitness
  • Crypto
  • Technology
No Result
View All Result
USA Wire
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

Copyright is failing artists: Here’s what could replace it

USA Wire Staff<span class="bp-verified-badge"></span> by USA Wire Staff
August 23, 2022
in Business
Reading Time: 5 mins read
Copyright
26
SHARES
183
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Anyone who watches the Netflix sci-fi drama “Stranger Things” probably also knows about Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)“, originally released in 1985. It was always a great song, but now it’s a massively popular great song thanks to the series. According to one recent industry estimate, Kate Bush has earned an estimated $2.3 million in streaming royalties as a result of its renewed popularity.  Nothing unusual in that, you might think – except that it is in fact highly unusual for a musician to benefit to this degree from a sudden surge in people listening to their music.

That’s because of the way copyright works in the music industry. Typically, an artist signs over the rights to what is called the “master recording” in return for an advance and a royalty percentage of the future profits made from the music. At that point, the creator of the music generally loses all control over their creation, including how it is used, and how subsidiary rights like streaming are sold. As a result, musicians receive only a small fraction of the big numbers that hits can generate, and are forced to watch recording companies rake in most of the profits.

Taylor Swift’s extreme solution

But not Kate Bush. She wisely held on to the copyright for the master recordings of her songs. As a result, she receives the vast majority of royalties from her hits – including “Running up that hill”. Artists who have already signed over these rights have to resort to extreme solutions to regain control over their work.  For example, Taylor Swift announced in 2020 that she would be re-recording her songs so that she could retain the rights to the new master recordings.

RecommendedReads

NR Marketing NYC: A Premier Marketing Agency for Modeling Agencies and Influencers

Declaring And Paying Tax On Cryptocurrency In India

Understanding, Developing, and Promoting Your Unique Identity through Personal branding

A UK Parliament committee found in 2021 that “the terms under which the major music groups, in particular, acquire the rights to music favor the majors at the expense of the creators”. This has resulted in an average income for performers that is less than the median wage.

Below the poverty line

Things are just as bad in the publishing industry. In 2018 the US Authors Guild conducted a survey of US authors that revealed a median author income of $6,080, down from $8,000 in 2014, $10,500 in 2009, and $12,850 in 2007. Respondents who identified themselves as full-time book authors still only earned a median income of $20,300, even including other sources of income such as teaching – a figure that is well below the US federal poverty line for a family of three or more.

In the world of academic publishing, the situation is even worse: authors are typically not paid for their work at all.  No wonder, then, that the leading academic publisher Elsevier has consistently enjoyed profit margins of 30-40% – far beyond what most companies ever achieve.

$290 million paycheck

The UK Parliament committee noted the “record high levels of income and profit growth and historic levels of profitability for the major labels”.  One indication of the money circulating in the music industry was the $50 billion value achieved by the Universal Music Group when it went public on Amsterdam’s Euronext exchange in 2021.  UMG’s successful floatation boosted the pay of its chief executive, Sir Lucian Grainge, to around $290 million in 2021.  Typical UMG musicians, whose work forms the foundation of the company’s value and profitability, would need around 14,000,000,000 streams of their songs to earn the same amount.

The chasm between the pittance that most creators earn and the healthy profits enjoyed by intermediaries like recording companies and publishers that depend on their creativity is just one indication that copyright is not working.  Others include the fact that libraries are increasingly forced to rent electronic versions of books, rather than own them, and that people are forbidden to repair devices – even large, mechanical ones, like tractors – that they have bought because doing so would break copyright laws.

Five LGBTQ+ Books you Must Read(Opens in a new browser tab)

True fans

One reason why artists put up with this manifestly unfair situation is that copyright is presented as the only way in which they can be rewarded. That may have been true in the past, but is no longer the case. The spread of the Internet means that there is now an alternative channel for creators to reach out to the public.  Music, books, and films placed on a Web site can be downloaded by anyone with an Internet connection, anywhere in the world. That global reach also allows completely new business models to be explored.  They can be based not on copyright’s punitive laws and exclusionary approach, but on sharing creativity widely, and encouraging fans – especially “true fans” – to support directly the artists whose work they love.

These and other related ideas are explored in my new book “Walled Culture: How Big Content Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Keep Creators Poor”.  

Glyn Moody has been writing about copyright, digital rights, and the Internet for 30 years. He is the author of Walled Culture: How Big Content Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Keep Creators Poor. It may be downloaded free of charge as an ebook from the site walledculture.org, or bought as a traditional book from online bookstores. 

By Glyn Moody

Copyright
Copyright
Share10Tweet7Share3
Previous Post

From the forefront of the Medicine Music movement, Ajeet, Peia and Nessi Gomes share an empowering song that is a celebration of life and freedom of the heart

Next Post

Finding a Car Accident Attorney to Help You

USA Wire Staff<span class="bp-verified-badge"></span>

USA Wire Staff

USA Wire is a millennial-focused news publication that provides content in a way that relates to the modern world. USA Wire strives to provide unbiased and accurate coverage of current events, highlighting both the good and bad.

Related Posts

edit post
NR Marketing NYC: A Premier Marketing Agency for Modeling Agencies and Influencers
Marketing

NR Marketing NYC: A Premier Marketing Agency for Modeling Agencies and Influencers

January 24, 2023
edit post
Business

Declaring And Paying Tax On Cryptocurrency In India

January 22, 2023
edit post
Personal branding
Marketing

Understanding, Developing, and Promoting Your Unique Identity through Personal branding

January 21, 2023
Next Post
edit post
Finding a Car Accident Attorney to Help You

Finding a Car Accident Attorney to Help You

edit post
Artist Feature: Clint Maedgen

Artist Feature: Clint Maedgen

edit post

EP Review: “Whatever Floats Your Boat” by Jacob Rice

Discussion about this post

Follow us

Recommended

edit post
Art of Living Foundation Co-Hosts Panel on Mental Health

Art of Living Foundation Co-Hosts Panel on Mental Health

9 months ago
edit post
red and black heart illustration

Monkeypox—What the Future Holds, How to Prevent It and What Causes It

7 months ago
edit post
Self-Care

Self-Care Tips to Help You Relax this September

5 months ago
edit post
Ways to Get Discount Tickets for WonderWorks Panama City Beach

Ways to Get Discount Tickets for WonderWorks Panama City Beach

12 months ago

Categories

  • Business
  • Celebrity
  • Construction
  • Crypto
  • Culture
  • Electrical
  • Entertainment
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Finance
  • Fitness
  • Food
  • Gaming
  • Health
  • Home Improvement
  • Lifestyle
  • Marketing
  • Medicine
  • Movies
  • Music
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • World

Topics

2018 FIFA World Cup (9) 2018 League (12) Alcatraz East (8) America (10) Asian Games 2018 (17) Balinese Culture (10) Bali United (9) book (8) Budget Travel (17) Business (17) celebrity (15) Chopper Bike (11) clothing (8) dadsrc (9) Digital (8) Entrepreneur (10) family (9) fitness (11) food (11) fun (11) future (10) Health (29) healthcare (8) home (16) Idenfy (9) impact (8) Istana Negara (17) life (9) Market Stories (22) museum (8) music (11) National Exam (13) New (9) nightclub (9) pandemic (11) partnership (10) Paws of War (13) performance (10) podcast (11) summer (14) technology (8) therapy (7) tips (16) Visit Bali (16) WonderWorks (19)
USA Wire

© 2021 USA Wire

Navigate Site

  • Write For Us
  • Contact
  • My Account

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Thought Leader Council
  • Politics
  • News
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel

© 2021 USA Wire

Go to mobile version