Collectively Managed Remuneration Rights
The Mechanism To Deliver Fair Remuneration

Make streaming pay performers, through our CMOs. That’s the call from performers across Europe. Under the current system, less than 10% of streaming revenue is paid through to actors and musicians. Most performers receive nothing at all.

The EU Copyright Directive has given performers a right to receive a fair remuneration for all forms of exploitation and has given Member States the assignment to guarantee this and choose a mechanism that delivers effective remuneration.

There have been numerous studies, varying from WIPO, the UK Parliament and Deloitte to academics such as Professor Xalabarder and the European Copyright Society, all pointing to unwaivable remuneration rights as the mechanism to deliver fair remuneration for online exploitations. The introduction of such an unwaivable remuneration right is hereby always linked to its collective management. Indeed, many countries have already adopted collectively managed remuneration rights for certain forms of online exploitations and this choice is working for performers, producers, streaming services and consumers. It is time to extend this system to all forms of online exploitation.

There is a consensus that performers are not receiving a fair remuneration from online uses such as streaming. Because of their weaker bargaining position, their contracts do not secure their remuneration and producers received the majority of revenues generated by streaming services.

Dozens of studies have been conducted in recent years on the ability for artists to monetise the streaming of their performances. All studies show that the current model does not work. Those that propose alternatives all lead to the introduction of unwaivable remuneration rights. Such remuneration rights are often subject to mandatory collective licensing by a Collective Management Organisation (CMO). This reduces the administrative cost both to the performer and the user. The single licence and single usage reporting is consistent with existing mechanisms for the collective licensing of broadcast and other rights.