The Ivors Academy of Music Creators—written evidence (CRF0038)

House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee inquiry “A creative future”

The Ivors Academy is the UK’s independent association representing professional songwriters and composers. As champions of music creators for over 70 years, the organisation works to support, protect and celebrate music creators including through its internationally respected Ivors Awards. 

We led the campaign alongside the Musicians’ Union (MU) to ‘Fix Streaming’ that saw 18,000 songwriters, composers, performers and members of the public call on the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to hold an enquiry into reforms to streaming that would benefit writers, artists and consumers. As a result of our campaign the DCMS Select Committee produced a report based on evidence that we and many others provided which called for a “complete reset” of music streaming so that songwriters, composers and artists, who currently receive “pitiful returns”, are fairly rewarded. 

The music industry is a dynamic and valuable industry for the UK economy. In 2019 the industry contributed £5.8bn (GVA) and employed 197,000 people, according to UK Music’s ‘This Is Music 2021’ report.[1] Exports of UK music in 2019 were worth £2.9bn to the UK economy, and even during the pandemic, exports of UK music were valued at £2.3bn.[2] The music industry was hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic with the industry’s contribution to the UK economy falling by 46% in 2020 year on year and 1 in 3 in the industry losing their job, resulting in the employment rate in the industry falling from 2019’s all-time high to 128,000. Even after this damaging decline, the UK music industry still employs more than the steel and fisheries sectors combined. 

The value of the music, and wider creative industries, has been recognised by the government. DCMS has been consulting the Academy and other stakeholders on their planned Creative Industries Sector Vision. This Sector Vision will set out a long-term strategy focused on promoting growth within the sector and delivering on the government’s levelling up, Global Britain and net zero objectives[3], and when published later this year, will set out a goal for the creative industries to be double the size they currently are.

Our submission focuses on the future of the music industry as a key sector within the creative industries.

1.    Which areas of the creative industries face the greatest potential for disruption and change in the next 5–10 years, and what impact could this have? a) What changes are expected in the way creative/cultural content is produced; the way audiences are engaged (for example through digital or immersive experiences); and the way business models operate?

The rise of streaming as the dominant form of music consumption in the UK and globally has been the largest change within the music industry this generation. In 2001, the year of the creation of Apple’s iTunes Store, the market for recorded music was valued at $23 billion worldwide. From 2002-15 worldwide recorded music revenue fell by 40% as consumers accessed digitally pirated music or music on User Generated Content (UGC) websites. Since 2014 global music industry revenues have increased from a low of $14.4 billion to $20.2 billion in 2019 due to the growth of streaming.[4] Streaming now makes up over 70% of UK recorded music revenues and has moved consumers to a system of all-you-can-eat for a small monthly fee (or free with advertising).

The rewards from the growth of streaming have not been fairly shared across the industry. Whilst the major labels posted over $20 billion in annual revenues in 2021,[5] songwriters earn “pitiful returns”. The song, which is at the start and heart of a recording has been consistently undervalued in comparison to the share of streaming revenues flowing to record labels and digital service providers.

This growth in streaming has also occurred alongside the growth of social media websites and applications. Songwriters, composers, and performers use social media to promote their work, and engage with and grow their fanbase. TikTok is a social media app from the Chinese technology company ByteDance. The platform was first launched in 2016 and has grown into one of the largest social media sites in the world with over 1 billion daily users in 2022. From the start, music was integral to the content being uploaded to the app and this has led to younger audiences discovering older tracks as they go ‘viral’ on the app. In 2020 ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac reached number 12 in the US charts and 35 in the UK charts 43 years after its original release due to it being featured in a viral video on TikTok. As a result of this, major labels are now paying ‘TikTokers’ to feature classic songs in their videos in the hope that new listeners will discover and stream those songs.[6]

Traditionally, labels and publishers used to rely on artists and repertoire (A&R) teams to identify new acts. Much of this work has been replaced by the use of social media sites like TikTok. Those teams are now scouring TikTok for new artists and songwriters to sign after they achieve a viral ‘hit’ on TikTok. Research from Vox and The Pudding found that, of the artists who charted on Spotify for the first time from January 2020 to December 2021, 25% of them came from TikTok[7] and of those artists, 46% percent of them went on to sign a contract with a major record label.

Established artists are also making use of technology in live shows. In 2022, ABBA launched a year-long residency in a specially constructed, 3,000-capacity venue in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London where the ABBA Voyage shows are performed by digital versions of the band, recorded using motion capture technology. Over 1,000 animators worked to digitise the footage that is projected onto a 65 million pixel screen. These ‘ABBAtars’ are accompanied by a live band. This allows the band to ‘perform’ a show every night and the venue can be ‘flat packed’ and transported to anywhere in the world.

As the technology develops it is likely that more artists will want to use similar technologies in their live shows, allowing them to perform more frequently and in locations that they might not otherwise have been able to visit in person. There is a danger that this will further exacerbate the earnings gap between ageing mega-artists and those at the start or early stages of their career. This summer saw the Pet Shop Boys (aged 62 and 67), Paul McCartney (aged 80) and Diana Ross (aged 78) headline Glastonbury Festival.[8]  The cost of recording ABBA Voyage was reportedly over £140 million[9], so only the biggest artists will be able to use this technology, increasing the risk that new artists will not be able to compete with these acts for consumers’ money.

Added to this are concerns about the increasing concentration of earnings in catalogue works both of the living and deceased.[10] Concerns have been reported for some time about the average age of UK artists featuring at the top of the international music charts and global tours.

Progress in AI is being used by songwriters and composers in both functional and experimental formats. Music’s creators have always been at the vanguard of the development and application of technology. ‘CreaTech’ is an exciting driver of the future global economy with the applications of AI, virtual reality, augmented reality and 5G connectivity. Music is an important integrated part of all the creative industries. In this way it is unique and this is made possible by music creators’ ability to embrace, adapt and apply technology to the creative spark. 

There is an important distinction to be made between works created with the assistance of AI used as a tool and works generated in a fully autonomous way by AI. As far as we are aware, the latter does not exist at present, as some human intervention is currently always involved in either the initiation or in relation to editing or selecting a specific version from multiple outputs produced through the assistance of AI. 

Given that there are currently no musical works generated by AI in a fully autonomous way it is important to highlight and value the human creativity involved and ensure that investment in that creativity is supported through copyright. We agree with the IPO statements that “copyright is centred on human creativity” granting a “natural right to creators, protecting their works as expressions of their personalities”.

The use of AI does come with some risks to workers in the creative industries. Some of our media composer members have raised concerns that production companies have been requiring that they give access to the stems (the individual audio sources for each instrument in a track) for the pieces they are commissioned to write. Whilst there is not currently any evidence of AI replacing human composers, there is a concern that these stems could be used to train AI algorithms to compose audio tracks to replace human composers. 

While music creators embrace new technology, doing so should not undermine their right to attribution and remuneration from the intellectual property that is the fruits of their labour. The Academy is therefore very concerned about the recent decision taken by the Government in their response to the ‘Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property: copyright and patents’ consultation to allow third parties to use creative works, including music, for data mining purposes without the need for creators and rightsholders to provide permission. 

The success of the creative industries in this country has been down to our robust, balanced and responsive copyright laws which put licensing first. The music industry has always found effective licensing solutions to enable the growth and development of new technologies and consumer offerings whether in the form of the advent of broadcasting, CDs, downloads or streaming. By seeking a text and data mining exception ‘for any purpose’, and without an available opt-out, the Government would be inflicting the maximum potential harm on the creative industries as a result of this policy. 

The decision to make this change has been portrayed as a ‘Brexit benefit’. The UK is striking new trade deals all over the world and we have been assured through UK Music that copyright will be at the heart of those agreements. It is therefore contradictory and deeply concerning that the government is promoting the importance of IP and copyright in trade deals abroad yet proposing measures that would undermine it at home. As part of our submission to the consultation we raised the importance of ensuring there was a licensing system to ensure that human authors receive appropriate value for the re-use of their endeavours in the AI produced output.[11] 

As a policy goal, it is important that innovation is not stifled and copyright is no impediment to innovation. Indeed, when new copyrights are created they are an example of innovation. It is also important to understand that the creative output of AI will be based on hundreds of years of human creative endeavour as well as millions of existing copyright protected works which will now be competing with AI generated (and assisted) works. This could create a manifestly unfair advantage for the use and exploitation of AI generated music (and other creative works) and it is imperative that the policies adopted must also protect human creative endeavour both past and future. 

2.    What skills will be required to meet these emerging opportunities and challenges?

Over 17% of the vacancies in the Film, TV and Music sector in 2019 were due to a skills shortage, according to DCMS figures.[12] A FocalData survey of over 500 young people aged 19 to 29 interested in a career in music, commissioned in 2022 by The Ivors Academy, found that:

• Over 70% felt that starting a career in music would be difficult, citing barriers such as not having contacts, being too much of a financial risk, lack of opportunities, and the industry not being open to people from their background
• When asked about the barriers young people faced in accessing further education, almost 50% of those surveyed felt they were unable to afford it, and 1 in 4 said they do not have access to courses near where they live
• Only 7% of respondents felt they weren’t facing any barriers. 

Without training and educational opportunities there is a danger that a career in music will be the domain of those who are privileged or have financial success outside of their music career. UK Music’s 2018 report, Securing our Talent Pipeline, revealed that over 17% of music creators were educated at fee paying schools, compared with 7% of the population as a whole.[13]

Many young people can’t access state-funded arts education, careers in the creative industries or a creative life. We believe that everyone, everywhere, with the desire and talent should have the chance to start and establish a career in music. It is essential that we create new opportunities to support the next generation of music industry professionals and music creators. To push this agenda further we are opening access to a career in the creative industries through a new educational diploma, TheWRD from The Ivors Academy. A new diploma in creative entrepreneurship that brings together music industry leaders, expert educators and deep learning AI to offer career-defining arts education. 

Backed by the biggest players in the music industry, TheWRD is a Further Education course offering young people the chance of building a career in this highly competitive industry, with the first intake starting in September 2022. 

Following GCSEs, this new pre-degree diploma will be delivered through a combination of a ground-breaking, immersive platform for remote learning alongside regular group sessions and mentorship days in local grassroots music venues across the UK. 

Students will learn online and in person at their own pace on this accredited, flexible and UCAS-recognised course, which takes up to two years to complete. The skills and knowledge that students develop will create new opportunities, whether they stay in education, start a career in music – in front of or behind the mic – or in another industry. 

Taught and mentored by top music artists, publishers, producers, composers, technicians, marketeers, business executives, lawyers, accountants, graphic designers, publicists and agents and powered by TheWRD’s talent development technology, students will have a unique opportunity to chart a more fulfilling career in the creative industries. 

Students on the course can be state-funded for those who qualify or funded privately and for those students who aren’t eligible for state funding but who are unable to fund themselves, TheWRD has formed a network of partners to offer over 100 scholarships for those who are unable to meet the cost of the course.

3.    What actions are needed from the Government and local authorities to ensure there is an appropriate talent pipeline equipped with these skills?  a) How can this be sufficiently flexible to take account of the pace of change in the sector?

It is vital that the Government funds good quality academic and vocational music education. For too long, funding for subjects like art and music has been seen as a ‘nice to have’ and the subjects have been sidelined by political and policy change. For example, the Government set a target of 90% of pupils taking the English Baccalaureate combination of GCSEs, which excludes music. This focus has led to a decline in the number of pupils taking GCSE music in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of 16.83% and the number of A-level music entrants has fallen by 31.47% since 2014.[14]

Given this, the Academy welcomes the recent National Plan for Music Education (NPME) announced by the Government. The NPME will mean more funding for musical education with Music Hubs receiving £79 million each year until 2025 and a further £25 million for schools to purchase musical instruments and equipment.[15] The NPME also makes music a part of the national curriculum with the explicit expectation that schools should provide an hour per week for Key Stages 1-3.

The first NPME was launched in 2011 and a report from the Department for Education found that 36% of respondents said the first Plan had been ineffective in meeting the government’s vision over the past decade[16]. There is a danger that unless schools and Music Hubs are given extra funding they will not be able to properly resource the music education that our children deserve and the talent pipeline will be diminished.

It is important that the Government also makes changes to support those who are currently working in the sector and mitigate the risks of them leaving. According to DCMS research as many as 70% of those working in music, performing and visual arts work on a self-employed or freelance basis.[17] This means that they often do not have a traditional HR department to go to if they are facing harassment or discrimination by their employer. Research has found that only 13% of those surveyed in the music sector formally reported harassment they had suffered.[18] We therefore call on the Government to extend the protections relating to discrimination and harassment in the Equality Act 2010 to all freelancers so that they are entitled to the same protections as the wide range of individuals in the workplace who are already protected.

The Government should also maintain and increase funding for the creative industries through bodies like Arts Council England (ACE), the BBC and Channel 4. Arts Council England acts as central body providing £115 million a year of funding for Music Education Hubs and yet it is at risk of abolishment, according the Chief Executive, Dr Darren Henley. The BBC has announced it will be reducing funding to its orchestras and performing groups as part of £200 million of savings due to the licence fee being frozen.

This committee must urge the government to properly fund organisations that support the creative arts if we want to see the UK to continue as a global leader in music.

4.    What actions are needed from industry to support the talent pipeline development? a) What actions are needed from organisations in the creative industries to prepare for and accommodate the requirements of the future workforce?

The music industry needs to do more to ensure the sector is diverse and representative of the talents of our country.  As mentioned above, the industry is over-representative of those who attended private school with over 17% of music creators educated at fee paying schools, compared with 7% of the population as a whole.

The Ivors Academy is committed to addressing inclusion and the historical lack of diversity in the music industry, and to creating a safer and more inclusive environment. Our 12-point Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan 2020-2022 committed us to improving representation within our internal structures by ensuring that our governing bodies and Committees/Councils have a minimum 50% gender balance, 30% Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation, 10% creators with disabilities, the involvement of a minimum of one person aged under 25 and the avoidance of London-centric representation.[19]

As a result of this plan The Academy has reformed its governance structures, seeing female membership of its board rise from 14% to 66%, one of the highest percentages in the music industry. We were the first UK trade association to sign up to the Keychange pledge in 2019 which commits organisations to achieving a gender balance of 50:50 in the music industry[20] and we were the first organisation in the industry to report on gender and ethnicity pay gaps, despite our small team size which can make pay gaps harder to manage.

In 2022 we published a new code of conduct[21]  which sets out the principles and standards of behaviour that we expect all Academy members to meet and also defines discriminatory behaviour, bullying and harassment, thereby enabling our members to have the confidence to report inappropriate behaviour. Our Board and Senate members are also required to attend training on bullying and harassment as a condition of those memberships.

The Academy has also been leading on providing opportunities for young people without contacts to develop the skills to enter the music industry through TheWRD, which we referred to in our answer to the previous question.  This is one of a suite of new opportunities the Academy has launched in the last 18 months from Mentoring (Co-Pilot Scheme), Inside Track (artist development programme) and In The Room (under 25 advocacy programme). These programmes are linked to the Ivors Academy Youth Council that seeks to encourage and support the talent pipeline of under 25 music creators.

We feel that there is more for the industry to do. Recent elections to the PRS Council, the overarching board of the collective management organisation (CMO) for songwriters and composers, resulted in all writers being elected to the board being white and the four publishers elected being white and male.

We are in the process of launching a new programme, The Ivors Academy Advocacy Accelerator, to improve the diversity of representation on music industry boards by giving a small number of people from under-represented groups the opportunity to gain from the experience of being on the Board of the Ivors Academy and to increase their experience and knowledge via mentoring and training on the functions and structures of key organisations in the music industry.

The Academy also feels that there is more work for the industry to do to engage with grassroots projects and ensure that this is linked up to the National Plan for Music Education. The Music Works in Gloucester offers opportunities to young people aged 8-30 through offering career development, one-to-one music mentoring and access to a high-spec music studio where young people can record music.[22] These physical spaces can act as incubators for creative talent in a local area, where young people can explore and develop their musical creativity. If the NPME could use the expertise of these existing schemes and support them to expand their work then we can help support young people entering the creative arts across the country.

It is important that the industry also properly remunerates creators for their work. People enter the creative industries because they are passionate about it, but they will not remain in the industry if they are not able to sustain a decent standard of living. An increasing number of our media composer members are encountering coercive contracts to buy out their rights and/or future royalties.

An Ivors Academy survey in 2019 found that 35% of media composers have taken buyouts or work for hire deals where composers are paid an upfront fee in return for their rights, 41% had to give away more of their mechanical rights than they wanted to and 64% believe the commissioning environment is coercive.[23]

Composers who stand up for their rights fear being added to the ‘blacklist’ of people who will not give away all their publishing rights, or risk missing out on being on the ‘whitelist’ of those who get repeat commissions based on their willingness to give away their rights, rather than the quality of the music.

We joined together with the Musicians’ Union (MU) to launch a campaign to end coercive practices in the sector. Our ‘Composers Against Buyouts’ campaign has focussed on educating composers around their rights, raising awareness of issues in the sector, calling out bad practices and negotiating codes of conduct with broadcasters such as the BBC. 

5.    What role do innovation and research & development play in addressing the future challenges facing the creative industries? a) What actions are needed from the Government, funding bodies and sector organisations to support innovation, and research & development?

Research produced by us has found an estimated £500 million per annum is not paid out to creators due to bad or insufficient metadata[24]. This metadata is used to ensure that the rights owners are paid correctly and promptly when their songs and records are streamed. There are currently no restrictions to uploading a song with no or incorrect metadata (like a misspelled name or song title) to streaming sites. This means that creators can see no payments for their work or years of delays as organisations like PRS have to spend resources trying to match streams to payments.

In 2021 The Ivors Academy and Music Rights Awareness Foundation, founded by Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA, launched a campaign entitled Credits Due to raise awareness of the issue, a campaign that has since gained a further c70 supporters.[25]Amongst these are a number of organisations who have invested in, created and launched tech solutions to try and solve this issue of missing data.

Under a workstream led by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the music industry has been discussing possible steps that we can take to improve the situation. But whilst it is still possible to upload songs to streaming sites without any or incorrect data, these problems will still occur. It is vital that any proposed solution that comes out of these IPO discussions includes a workable timeline for including songwriter metadata or identifiers.  If this information is only included in a proposed data ‘gold standard’ there is a risk that no improvement in the status quo will be secured. So, we would recommend that this committee endorses the position of the DCMS Select Committee that the industry should “establish a minimum viable data standard within the next two years to ensure that services provide data in a way that is usable and comparable across all services”.[26]

6.    How effective are the Government’s existing strategies at supporting the creative industries to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead?

The Covid-19 pandemic makes it hard to measure what effect recent support from the Government has had. The music industry was particularly badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. 1 in 3 workers in the industry left in 2020 and the industry shrank by £2.7 billion, with exports falling by nearly a quarter.[27] We are starting to see a recovery, but it will be a while before we can see to what extent the industry has recovered.

Another area where we will need to wait before any effect may be felt is in music education. Recent changes announced in the National Plan for Music Education, referred to earlier in the document, are positive. But, again, it will be a while before we are able to assess whether they have resulted in more young people studying music at GSCE or A-Level. However any increase in students studying music GCSE will be from a low base, given that figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications the 33,793 music GCSE entries this year marks a 4% decrease on last year and a 27% decrease compared to 2010.[28]

A 2022 report by the Music All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), Let the Music Move – A New Deal for Touring, assessed the impact of Brexit on the UK touring industry. It found that “UK music workers are facing more costs, more complications and getting fewer opportunities after leaving the EU. Issues include, visa restrictions, a range of new bureaucratic costs, difficulties transporting kit and the exodus of the UK event haulage fleet” and included a number of recommendations to government designed to resolve these issues, with the ultimate goal that a cultural touring agreement is included in the 2025 Review of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) covering the short-term movement of artists, waivers from checks for instruments and kit and an agreement on cabotage rules to allow registered event hauliers the ability to move between the UK and the EU seamlessly.[29]

These issues around touring effect not only performers on tour, but the songwriters or composers who wrote those songs. Artists who are songwriters are effectively losing out twice, as they are deprived of performance fees and performing right royalty income who have contributed to the works that will now not be performed by an artist on tour are losing out on performing right royalty income. Composers whose works might have been performed by orchestras/ensembles on tour are losing out on performing right royalty income and, almost certainly, a percentage of hire fee income.

September 2022

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