Category: Campaigning

The Ivors Academy has launched a new resource to help songwriters and composers understand how they can use the new UK music industry Transparency Code to ask their publishers for more information about their royalties and remuneration from music streaming services.  This resource  also contains template wordings that Ivors Academy members can use when making […]

Classical, jazz, sound art, film and media composers and songwriters make a valuable and vital contribution to Wales’ economy, culture, national identity, and wellbeing. Wales is often referred to as the ‘Land of Song’, and these genres rely on a thriving cultural ecosystem, public and charitable funding, public service broadcasting, and an education system that […]

Three years ago the Ivors Academy and Musicians’ Union (MU) launched Composers Against Buyouts, a campaign designed to raise awareness about, and to tackle, unfair royalty buyouts in media commissioning contracts. As our work in this space developed, we became increasingly aware of other problems in the commissioning process, including a general lack of transparency, […]

The Culture, Media and Sport select committee has published a report on Creator Remuneration following meetings in parliament where Ivors Academy Board member VV Brown and Nile Rodgers gave evidence to MPs about the issues facing songwriters.  This report is published by the same committee that produced the ‘Economics of Streaming’ inquiry in 2021 that […]

With those lines our summit was open.  Supported by PRS for Music, sponsored by DAACI and with Music Ally as media partner, the event heard from policy makers, tech companies, collecting societies, and music makers who spoke and presented to a room full of creators who wanted to learn what making music in the era […]

AI is rapidly changing the music industry, presenting both opportunities and threats. Many songwriters are using AI as part of their creative process but AI models are being trained on copyright works without permission and generating new music that risks being indistinguishable from human-created music. This is why it is important for you to be […]

On 31st March 2021 the Ivors Academy and Musicians’ Union launched #ComposersAgainstBuyouts – a campaign to raise awareness around buyout deals in audio-visual commissioning, and how these deals impact composers and the wider industry. A buyout deal is where the upfront fee is used to acquire rights and royalty revenue associated with the music. The […]

PRS’s letter of direction provides a way for rights holders to direct revenues from royalties to a third party only in exceptional circumstances. With offices in London and LA, Moonbug creates and publishes programmes and podcasts for children. In response to the concerns raised by members PRS for Music has stated: “PRS has always defended […]

This article was jointly produced between MU Deputy General Secretary Naomi Pohl and Ivors Academy CEO Graham Davies. At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, when musicians and songwriters lost so much work and over 20,000 faced immediate financial hardship, it became clear that streaming royalties were insufficient and not playing their part in shoring […]

AS COMPOSERS WE ASSERT THAT Copyright rests with the author. This is enshrined in copyright law and is the moral starting point of every negotiation. Music creates unique emotional connections and financial value in an audiovisual production. Composers should receive a fair share of the value they create. Only composers should decide how much of […]