The European Commission today proposed measures so as to modernise collecting societies and to put incentives in place to promote their transparency and efficiency, means to put reform regulation around collecting societies such as the groups which work as an intermediate between right-holders and service providers.
Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier said: “We need a European digital Single Market that works for creators, consumers and service providers. More efficient collecting societies would make it easier for service providers to roll out new services available across borders – something that serves both European consumers and cultural diversity.”
He added “More generally, all collecting societies should ensure that creators are rewarded more quickly for their work and must operate with full transparency. This is paramount to sustaining investment in creativity and innovation which will in turn lead to additional growth and increased competitiveness.”
Counting on iTunes, the New York Times pointed out that while the availability of iTunes is in EU’s 27 member states, but in real it accounts for just 19 percent of recording industry revenue across the European Union although iTunes does generates approximately half of equivalent revenue in the United States, as per IFPI figures.
Today’s proposal pursues two complementary objectives:
- To promote greater transparency and improved governance of collecting societies through strengthened reporting obligations and rightholders’ control over their activities, so as to create incentives for more innovative and better quality services.
- Building upon this – and more specifically – to encourage and facilitate multi-territorial and multi-repertoire licensing of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses in the EU/EEA.
