U.K. STREAMING BILL STALLS

The streaming bill that stirred controversy in the U.K. last week has not passed through Parliament, eliciting a collective sigh of relief among labels.

Proposed by MP Kevin Brennan, the bill was put up for debate on Friday to determine whether it would progress to the next stage required for prospective legislation.

Instead, the government has encouraged finding an “industry solution” via a number of working groups to ask some “hard questions” about what labels are doing to ensure that artists are properly remunerated.

George Freeman, parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said the government is open to passing legislation, if later required, or working with the Competition and Markets Authority to make sure measures are put in place so that the “industry—and labels—respond in the right way.”

Brennan has proposed changes to U.K. copyright law that would result in equitable remuneration being applied to streams (like it is for radio, where 50% of earnings go to the copyright owner and 50% to the performer), as argued during the economics-of-streaming debate and in the subsequent report. The new right would only apply to artists who haven’t released material independently (those who have could actually receive less money under the new rule than they are currently).

He also argued for contract adjustments that would offer creators the right to renegotiate old deals, copyright reversion after 20 years and transparency rights.