Ed O'Brien welcomes the MPs' streaming report and asks for a law

Ed O'Brien has welcomed the report on the economics of music streaming that the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee published on Thursday 15 July. He posted his response on Facebook the same day.

It has finally been officially recognised that Artists have not been remunerated fairly.

Ed O'Brien¹

The digital era, he wrote, still pays artists by an old and deeply unfair model from the 20th century, and the report accepts that their rights and the way they are paid need a fundamental reset.

The MPs want streaming reset from the ground up, with artists' right to a fair share of the earnings written into law. Their recommendations include a new right for performers to equitable remuneration when their music is streamed, and a referral of the major labels' position to the Competition and Markets Authority. O'Brien gave evidence to the inquiry last November, in a session with Guy Garvey of Elbow and Nadine Shah.

He thanked the MPs, and Tom Gray of Gomez, whose #BrokenRecord campaign has pushed for fairer streaming pay. Gray called the report damning.

BUT it's only a start. Now this needs to be legislated

Ed O'Brien¹

, O'Brien wrote, and then built on until every artist has a fair deal, above all those starting out and those on the margins.