“In Sweden, where paid subscription predominates, local artists have seen payments increase by 111 per cent while corresponding record producers’ income increased by 47 per cent. The blog goes on to applaud labels as the “primary investors” in artists and singles out Sweden as a portent of the golden times that artists in other markets could enjoy in the (near) future. “The issue is not that artists are getting lower royalty payments from digital services – they are not – but that the overall recorded music market has shrunk, which means smaller revenues for all involved,” writes Moore. Within this, it reports that industry revenue in those markets slipped 17% between 20 but that payments to artists in the same time period slid by just 6%.
In terms of the methodology underpinning this IFPI research, Moore explains that it was based on payments to locally signed artists in 18 different markets. This means that artist remuneration has actually increased as a proportion of record companies’ revenues in the last five years.” Moore adds, “IFPI found that while payments to artists have declined over the past five years, the decline was substantially smaller than the reduction in corresponding sales revenue. “Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she?”). Critics of label payments to artists can now play their Mandy Rice-Davies Card (i.e. She says that the results reveal that record producers, while moving to rebuild their businesses to be match fit for the digital age, “have actually safeguarded artists’ incomes as best they can”. “ut,” she says, “it needs to be placed in the context of a decline in the value of the recorded music industry of more than one-third over that period.” She goes on to say that the organisation has conducted some research into the area (and points out that it was independently verified by BDO LLP) to try and bring more clarity to the debate. She opens by saying that artists are right when they claim they are seeing less money in royalty payments than they did a decade ago. Tags: IFPI Royalties SoundCloud Streaming YouTubeįrances Moore, the chief executive of the IFPI, has posted a blog about artist payments from streaming services.