British trade body the BPI is at loggerheads with The Musicians’ Union over session musician fees, claiming that it’s making demands that are “neither viable nor reasonable.”

As part of negotiations to increase the minimum fees session musicians are paid, the BPI says it has offered, on behalf of its label members, a 40% increase for those working on pop and rock recordings.

However, MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl says the proposal falls short, arguing that session musicians should also be paid streaming royalties for tracks they’ve worked on. This should cover existing catalog recordings, she told MBW.

BPI CSO and Interim CEO Sophie Jones said this ask “would ultimately impact featured artist and songwriter earnings while also reducing the ability of labels to support future talent.”

“It ignores the way in which session musicians are paid—free to work with whomever they choose, usually as part of a portfolio career, and via a guaranteed upfront fee that is paid irrespective of a recording’s success or it even being released at all. The demands that the MU are making are neither viable nor reasonable.”

The increase offered by the BPI would mean session musicians working in the U.K. would be entitled to a minimum fee of £180 for a three-hour recording session.

Jones criticized the fact that the MU hasn’t yet put the offer to its members for a vote, when the deal has been with the organization for a year and the deadline was 5/31. Pohl said MU committee members “don’t feel the offer is good enough to put to a ballot of members.”

“The BPI represents major record labels who are making record profits from music streaming while session musicians currently receive no royalties at all, even if they play on big hits,” Jones said.

“The union is campaigning to fix streaming and get royalties for all musicians, like on radio broadcast for example. The BPI’s offer referred to remunerating session musicians for streaming but an uplift on the session fee would not help the thousands of musicians on popular catalog who receive nothing at all. They also want to bundle in some other important rights including buying out an existing royalty stream.

“All in all, the deal doesn’t come close to addressing the music streaming issue or offering a decent pay rise. The minimum session fee has been far too low, for far too long. We hope for a better offer and will continue to campaign for royalties on streaming.”