m4music: 5 centimes for 100 streams
As in 2012, there was discussion at this year's m4music about the fact that a lot of music is still being listened to, but only meagre money is flowing to the artists.
Switzerland is known for its liberal and therefore controversial copyright law. At the panel discussion What copyright law does Switzerland need? However, the call for a complete revision was hardly ever heard. Instead, a contemporary interpretation was called for. In his introduction, Tim Renner, Managing Director of Motor Music, recalled the emergence of radio. This was originally perceived as a source of artist expropriation. "Music was suddenly everywhere and free. With the consequence that the record industry at the time collapsed to 5% of its volume." Now we are in a similar situation. "That's why we need regulations that apply to everyone", such as the obligation to contract, "the legal obligation to establish a legal relationship with another person" (Wikipedia). This could force rights holders of a piece of music and users such as Swisscom to come to an agreement.
"Google is too big to pay."
Poto Wegener, Director of Swissperform, does not see the obligation to contract as a panacea. Concerts, for example, would not be covered. He would like to see a copyright law that mediates between the various interested parties and criticized the Internet company Google, which earns millions with free music content: "Google is too big to pay." The President of Musikschaffende Schweiz, Christoph Trummer, expects the law to protect works, and Lorenz Haas, Managing Director of the IFPI Switzerland label association, was keen to be able to influence the behavior of infrastructure operators: "We demand that hosting providers comply with certain duties of care." National Councillor Balthasar Glättli from the Green Party concluded: "In order for copyright law to be redesigned, the players must first come to an agreement."
"You get five centimes for 100 streams."
The subsequent discussion round, (How) Do artists earn money on the Internet?The main theme of the conference was the uncertainty prevailing in the music business and among collecting societies. While Oliver Sittl, Senior A&R at Believe Digital, praised the possibilities of the globalized market to the skies, Irène Philipp Ziebold, Director of the copyright society Suisa, pointed out the meagre reality: "For 100 streams, you get five centimes." Anything but a fair price, she noted. "We are also continuing to negotiate with the video portal YouTube, but some of their offers are incredibly low." If they were to agree to this, Suisa would not be doing the artists it represents any favors, she said.
Christoph Trummer also emphasized that it should not be acceptable for it to take 15 years for a musician to recoup the 50,000 francs that an album costs. Daniel Schönberger, Head of the Legal Department at Google Switzerland, spoke from the audience and explained that he had heard some unflattering things about his company during the discussion. He felt that the criticism that Google was making billions from third-party music content was undifferentiated. "We are a search engine and primarily provide legal content." And for free.
