Will you actively support WIN’s Global Values for Independent Music?
Music trade group WIN (Worldwide Independent Network) has announced a new set of Global Independent Values as part of its ongoing campaign to unify and clarify the sector’s positions. But will the industry embrace them?
From WIN:
As the music industry landscape evolves it is incumbent upon WIN to ensure its focus remains on those factors impacting its trade association members around the world. The last decade has seen significant advancements in technology and innovation in areas such as streaming, social media and latterly Web3, which have raised concerns about rights protection & collection, transparency & fairness and the wider value of music. There has also been global economic volatility and a greater need to address issues surrounding sustainability and equality, diversity & inclusion.
The ten points below represent the collective position of the global independent recorded music sector, put forward by WIN. All points are equal in stature and are not numbered according to any form of ranking or significance:
Global Independent Values
1. We, the independents, work to grow the value of music and the music business. Independent music businesses should have full market access and the best terms available. Anindependent copyright should be valued and remunerated at the highest level. We will work to ensure that all businesses in our sector are best equipped to maximize the value of their rights.
2. We support creators’ freedom to decide how their music may be used and their right to earn a living from their work, which should be respected as a basic human right. We will encourage artists and record labels to speak out directly against any uses of music that stifle that freedom. We expect all uses of music to be subject to authorization and fairly negotiated licensing terms.
3. We support independent music businesses who treat the artists they work with as partners and engage with them on fair commercial terms, noting that those businesses are investors who deserve a fair financial return alongside artists. We welcome choice and the variety of business models made available to artists by independent music businesses.
4. We promote transparency and fairness across the music market including the digital landscape. Artists and businesses are entitled to clarity on commercial terms. We will work to make streaming and new consumption models operate fairly, providing a dynamic, compelling and responsible future for artists, businesses and fans.
5. We support initiatives which confront market abuse and oppose over-consolidation in any part of the broader music ecosystem where it reduces market access and consumer choice. We will work to promote market access and foster collective responses by independents to potentially anti-competitive conduct.
6. We recognize that all independent music businesses contribute to local culture, diversity, jobs and export opportunities, and multiply the economic success of related industries. We will ask governments to promote and support the independent music sector in securing access to finance and tax credits, and to local and international markets.
7. We champion the full exercise and protection in all territories of the rights conferred on the owners of sound recordings by international treaties. We will promote initiatives to increase the transparency, democracy and efficiency of collecting societies, so that revenues are allocated and distributed accurately to their rightful owners.
8. We actively encourage and support new commercial opportunities for music. We will continue to support and develop new, legitimate technologies, business structures and partnerships, and to promote best practices within our industry.
9. We promote equity, diversity, inclusion and sustainability in the music sector. We will encourage best practices, local developments and projects regarding diversity and inclusion as well as those which promote individual and collective action to address the climate and environmental emergency.
10. The independents will work together to build a strong, ethical, and united ecosystem, fostering knowledge-sharing, international exchange and cooperation, and creating opportunities for all independent music businesses and their representative bodies around the world.
Bruce Houghton
