Changes from plenary report to adopted text

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Article 167 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions,

– having regard to Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2021/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021 establishing the Creative Europe Programme (2021 to 2027) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1295/2013,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act),

– having regard to its resolution of 14 December 2022 on the implementation of the New European Agenda for Culture and the EU Strategy for International Cultural Relations,

– having regard to its resolution of 20 October 2021 on Europe’s Media in the Digital Decade: an Action Plan to Support Recovery and Transformation,

– having regard to its resolution of 20 October 2021 on the situation of artists and the cultural recovery in the EU,

– having regard to its resolution of 19 May 2021 on artificial intelligence in education, culture and the audiovisual sector,

– having regard to its resolution of 20 October 2020 with recommendations to the Commission on a framework of ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies,

– having regard to its resolution of 20 October 2020 on intellectual property rights for the development of artificial intelligence technologies,

– having regard to its resolution of 17 September 2020 on the cultural recovery of Europe,

– having regard to Rule 54 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture and Education (A9-0388/2023),

A. whereas the music sector is a major pillar of culture, as a vital component of cultural and linguistic diversity in the Union, with the widest public outreach of any cultural and creative sector (CCS);

B. whereas the music sector is an important part of the CCS, which is recognised as one of the 14 key ecosystems for building the European economy, as it brings growth and the creation of jobs, including for young people;

C. whereas composers, songwriters and performers are at the very root of the music sector value chain and are the first and foremost creative driving forces of all music distributed on streaming platforms;

D. whereas rapid innovations in digital technologies over the last two decades have profoundly transformed the music sector, in particular the way music is created, produced and distributed and the way people access and consume it;

E. whereas the music sector is constantly and rapidly adapting, with new business models, new ways of interacting with audiences and the use of complementary platforms such as social media platforms or short-form video apps, which create both new opportunities and challenges; whereas, in this context, significant challenges need to be addressed, such as the promotion of cultural diversity and fair remuneration for authors;

F. whereas the main way that people now enjoy music is via streaming music services through either digital music platforms or platforms where online users upload content, including social media platforms, live performance streaming or short-form video apps, which provide access to up to 100 million tracks that are available anywhere, anytime and on all kinds of devices, either for free or for a comparatively low monthly subscription fee;

H. whereas authors and performers are frequently not recognised or remunerated in a way that reflects the true extent of their contribution, which results in a majority of authors receiving very low revenue from the music streaming market and often means they are unable to sustain their professional careers, which creates a significant imbalance over time that needs to be addressed; whereas there is a need to explore fairer models of streaming revenue allocation for authors and performers, by looking into different available mechanisms, such as pro-rata and user-centred models or totally new ones; whereas the criteria on how streams are counted by platforms may also have an impact on streaming manipulation practices;

I. whereas studies point out that the current situation is characterised by new challenges, as well as several long-standing systemic issues that the music sector continues to face, in particular a decline in the overall value of products, a concentration of revenue takings by major labels and the most popular artists, a lack of quality data to properly identify authors, performers or other rights holders, streaming manipulation, the illegal use of music content by online content-sharing service providers and dominant online platforms and apps stores; recalls that all of these factors affect the fairness and sustainability of the revenues generated by the music streaming market;

J. whereas the average price of a monthly subscription to a music streaming service has not increased over the years since the launch of such services, especially when taking into account inflation and the vast increase in the content available;

K. whereas authors’ rights should not be considered as a free asset for music services’ own commercial and promotional strategies;

L. whereas music streaming platforms, through their use of algorithms and recommendation systems, play an essential role in the discovery of content and therefore have a significant impact on cultural diversity; whereas they may also influence, select or inflate the visibility of certain tracks and therefore the revenues of authors and composers, as well as other players in the European CCS;

M. whereas music streaming platforms should continue their efforts to increase overall transparency and traceability on many operational aspects of high relevance to authors, performers and other rights holders; whereas music streaming platforms are under no obligation to provide transparency on their algorithms and recommendation tools or to ensure the promotion of European musical works;

N. whereas the promotion of cultural diversity in the European music streaming market, including the promotion of European artists worldwide, needs to be further analysed to unleash the full potential of the European CCS, which cannot depend solely on the commercial decisions of dominant private global operators;

O. whereas the music sector is increasingly confronted with the rise of AI-generated content, with a growing number of tracks flooding streaming platforms on a daily basis, which risks aggravating existing imbalances as regards discoverability and the remuneration of authors; whereas the development of AI technologies should instead serve and enhance human creativity and their use should be transparent;

P. whereas several studies have identified cases of streaming fraud and manipulation, as certain players work to manipulate the system to skim off revenues that should go to authors and performers, for example, by using bots to artificially inflate the number of listeners for certain uploaded tracks; whereas detection systems and identification mechanisms to mitigate this fraudulent behaviour on music streaming platforms are so far limited;

Q. whereas it is important to ensure a functioning single market for the online distribution of music; whereas, therefore, more dedicated efforts should be made to tackle and eliminate discrepancies and imbalances, given their impact on the market, in particular with regard to revenue share from streaming platforms; whereas to this end, further investigation and analysis should be conducted to collect data and identify factors that could create obstacles to the circulation of music content across Europe;

R. whereas the proper identification of authors is crucial not only for their recognition and better remuneration, but also for ensuring diversity and transparency on platforms;

1. Stresses the need to support and create rules ensuring a fair and sustainable ecosystem for music streaming in the Union that both promotes cultural diversity and addresses the imbalances that negatively affect the sector, especially its authors and performers, and may prevent it from flourishing;

2. Highlights that all actors in the music streaming value chain need to engage in an effective dialogue that includes authors and performers and make the necessary changes to ensure a fair, inclusive and sustainable ecosystem in the sector, so that it can contribute to cultural diversity, by providing opportunities to discover artists, as well as by promoting local repertoires;

3. Notes with concern that the current imbalance in revenue allocation in the music streaming market disfavours both authors and performers and puts the sustainability of their professional careers in the digital market at risk; welcomes any efforts towards fairer remuneration for authors and performers, in recognition of the importance of their role in the European music sector;

4. Calls on the Commission to assess the impact of existing contractual practices in the European music streaming market, as well as of the current revenue distribution model for music streaming services, on cultural diversity and the principle of appropriate and proportionate remuneration for authors and performers, and calls on it to explore, in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, appropriate measures, including alternative and fairer models to reallocate streaming revenues; calls on the Commission to examine whether there is a high level of concentration in the music industry and to assess its impact on cultural diversity, on the remuneration of authors and on competition;

5. Urges all stakeholders to take all necessary steps to overcome the current imbalances and asks the Commission to monitor and encourage progress in this regard and to consider appropriate policy proposals, should voluntary stakeholder initiatives fail to produce meaningful solutions;

Towards a sustainable ecosystem for authors

6. Emphasises that the key role of authors should be reflected through greater visibility on the music streaming services and a more balanced distribution of streaming revenues; calls on the industry to explore new models for allocating streaming revenue in order to ensure the most equal and fairest distribution possible for authors and performers;

7. Encourages the Commission to evaluate whether the use of new technologies, such as blockchain, and the international identification codes of rights holders, musical works and sound recordings have the potential to improve transparency and cost efficiency within the music streaming market, in particular for the accuracy of metadata and remuneration, especially for authors and performers; regrets that, in general, music streaming services significantly lack such transparency and identification requirements;

8. Underlines the importance of authors becoming members of collective management organisations to ensure the right to collective agreements and collective representation; emphasises that collective negotiations through authors’ societies aim to ensure proper value for the use of authors’ works in the music streaming market, as well as to facilitate fairer access to markets and cultural diversity within the Union; recalls the importance of Directive 2014/26/EU, which provides the framework for the online multi-territorial licensing of authors’ rights for music streaming services, ensures authors´ free choice in selecting the most efficient way of managing their remuneration rights, and sets a high level of transparency and good governance rules for collective management organisations, which are crucial for the effective management of repertoires on music streaming platforms;

9. Emphasises that it is essential to improve the identification of anyone involved in the creation process, in particular authors and performers, on music streaming services, by ensuring the comprehensive and accurate allocation of metadata from the time of creation for any track uploaded to a music streaming service; encourages, in this regard, the use of all international identification codes (IPI, ISWC, ISRC, IPN and ISNI); highlights that proper identification of creators plays a key role in the search for and discoverability of works, and enables proper remuneration for creators in the distribution of revenues;

10. Calls on all music industry players to intensify their efforts to ensure the comprehensive and correct metadata allocation of songs by identifying and accurately reporting authors’ data for their musical works on streaming services, including when the uploaded content is done by fully independent authors;

11. Stresses the need to raise awareness, in particular among young authors, of the importance of accurately getting credited and paid for their music in the streaming market; welcomes relevant research programmes and initiatives, including at international level, and calls on the Commission to explore ways to support such initiatives;

12. Recalls the need to ensure the value of authors’ rights, regardless of what music streaming services offer; notes that several recent studies, show that a majority of authors and performers do not receive sufficient revenue from music streaming; calls for the revision of pre-digital royalty rates to bring them into line with fair and modern rates; condemns the existence of any schemes, such as so-called payola schemes, that would force authors to accept lower or no revenue in exchange for greater visibility, thereby further reducing authors’ already very low streaming revenue, especially given that the promise of greater visibility remains unfulfilled in most cases;

13. Notes that the competition between music streaming providers on the European market is dominated by a few global players; recalls the need to rapidly implement the Digital Market Act and the Digital Services Act in order to ensure a fair ecosystem, by putting an end to unfair competition practices by online content-sharing platforms and music streaming service providers in the music streaming market, such as those enabling users to illegally stream or download protected content; stressed the need for transparency and efficient auditing in this regard; highlights the necessity of eliminating such infringements on and by platforms, as well as on app stores;

14. Stresses the importance of ensuring investment in new European talent and music, including local artists, niche artists and artists from vulnerable communities, through appropriate funding instruments, including the Creative Europe programme to boost investment in more diverse forms of repertoire in terms of language or genre, in the provision of digital skills and in the digital transformation of business models and stresses the need to raise authors’ awareness of their rights;

15. Supports promoting the sharing of information about artists’ live performances on platforms, especially for local artists, to facilitate new discoveries and further visibility;

16. Asks all stakeholders in the music streaming sector to work together to assess and reduce the carbon footprint of digital music;

Prominence and discoverability of European musical works

17. Calls for action to be taken at Union level to guarantee the visibility and accessibility of European musical works, considering the overwhelming amount of content constantly growing on music streaming platforms and the lack of Union rules to regulate them in a harmonised manner;