Geoff Taylor, head of British music industry body the BPI, gave his views on the #BrokenRecord campaign to Music Week on Friday, sparking some sharp responses on Twitter.
#BrokenRecord, remember, is the campaign involving a range of British musicians calling for a range of industry changes: from a rise in the cost of a streaming subscription and the introduction of ‘user-centric’ payouts to improvements in label deals, and a bigger share of streaming royalties going to songwriters.
In his interview, Taylor called for more recognition of the investment labels make in artist development and marketing. “That’s why we’ve got to look at this as a joint endeavour. Our focus should be on growing the streaming pie rather than trying to argue over where that streaming pie should go. The market takes care of that bit. The market takes care of the allocation of the monies that are earned from streaming,” said the BPI boss.
Cue Twitter, where former UK Music boss Michael Dugher (now heading a body representing the gambling industry) claimed Taylor was “advocating the music industry’s equivalent of trickle down economics and, just like trickle down economics, it’s a fallacy”.
Songwriters body The Ivors Academy also clapped back: “The market plainly doesn’t work when labels enjoy huge profits while the majority of creators cannot sustain a living from streaming.”
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