Beggars Group boss Martin Mills has called on his fellow record labels to make some significant changes to their business practices – for an urgent reason.
Mills suggests that, if they don’t already, majors and indies should start paying catalogue artists a 15% minimum royalty on music streaming usage – as well as wiping clean artists’ unrecouped debt after they have been signed for 20 years.
So far, this probably sounds like predictable music biz fare: ethical indie godfather attacks corporate greed.
But, this time, there’s a little more to the story.
Speaking at the pre-Grammy Entertainment Law Initiative lunch in Los Angeles on Friday (February 12) Mills explained that a safe harbour victory was “within our grasp” in Europe.
A small statement, but a hugely significant one: Mills was referring to the industry’s attempt to overturn safe harbour laws in the EC – laws which currently help YouTube and others to host copyright-infringing material without fear of legal punishment.