Ed O'Brien and Radiohead sign up to the Featured Artists Coalition

Radiohead have signed up to the Featured Artists Coalition, a new body campaigning for performers to own and control their recordings, and Ed O'Brien is one of its leading figures. It was launched at In the City, the music-industry conference in Manchester, with more than 60 artists on its founding charter; Billy Bragg, Iron Maiden, The Verve, Travis and Kate Nash are there beside Radiohead. The name comes from the “featured artist” credit, which goes to the acts whose names are on a record, as against the session players.

At present the labels own the rights to the recordings and use them largely as they choose. The coalition wants artists to keep the copyright and license their recordings to a label instead of signing ownership over. Its charter also asks for a fair share for artists whenever a label earns from their work, and for owners to “use it or lose it”, keeping recordings available or giving them up. Artists, it says, should be consulted on how their music is used and sold.

Radiohead left EMI after Hail to the Thief, and last October they released In Rainbows themselves, as a download at whatever price the buyer chose. Talking to BBC News about the coalition, O'Brien said that for us, this is a no-brainer of an issue and we believe that all artists and musicians should be signing up to this too⁴.