Category: Campaigning
This week the Ivors Academy and Musicians’ Union launched Keep Music Alive, a campaign to support music creators through Covid-19 and establish a more progressive industry model for the future. This includes a petition calling on the UK government to help the industry review the functioning of the streaming market. This is because Covid-19 has […]
Covid-19 has hit songwriters, musicians and composers hard. Gigs and commissions have been cancelled, festivals and performances postponed, and recording studios closed. Since early March, over 20,000 applications have been received to music industry Hardship Funds. This crisis has brought into sharp relief the fact that creators and performers are sustained primarily by income generated […]
The Ivors Academy recently surveyed its members about the impact of Covid-19 on music creators. The aim of this survey was to help us lobby Government to provide support for songwriters and composers that are being financially impacted. Our case to Government is significantly strengthened by input from members and we would like to thank […]
At the moment non-payment of the licence fee is not a criminal offence. Only failure to pay the fine can lead to a criminal record, although it rarely does. So we made the case against decriminalisation, focusing on three main points. 1. Based on the evidence provided by Government, we found that an alternative enforcement […]
In the past year, The Ivors Academy’s Songwriter Committee have been exploring ways of redressing the inequitable way streaming royalties are distributed today. One of the short-term remedies we’ve proposed is for songwriters to receive a per diem when they work with artists, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that our German […]
The decimation of concerts and the commissions for live performance will devastate classical composers’ earnings and playing living composers music will provide royalties and promotion at a critical time. The BBC is the largest commissioner of classical music in the UK and has access to thousands of recordings of contemporary classical recordings – many of […]
The Ivors Academy has joined calls for proper support for the thousands of self-employed and freelance musicians left behind by the UK Government, and looks forward to hearing the targeted measures being disclosed by the Chancellor in the coming days. But Graham Davies, CEO of The Ivors Academy, says the music industry must also do […]
Unity amongst the composer community has successfully reversed the aggressive move of Discovery Networks to remove payment of royalties from composers in favour of a low one-off buyout payment. This episode has highlighted the plight of composers – increasingly being pressured by broadcasters and platforms to take low payment up-front fees on the expectation that […]
The Ivors Academy is raising the alarm of the worsening outlook for media composers based on our latest survey and news from US broadcasters such as Discovery Channel. #nomusicbuyouts At The Ivors Academy of Music Creators we represent thousands of composers and songwriters, from well-established professional musicians earning their full-time living from music to those […]
The survey, aimed specifically at composers who write for screen, was launched as a result of hearing directly from music creators regarding their experiences during the commissioning processes, such as working for free and requests for giving up rights. This week, The Ivors Academy hosted a meeting led by our Media Committee to discuss the […]
Members of The Ivors Academy have raised concerns about music commissioning in the UK and Ireland. We want to compile the views and experiences of as many music creators as possible to campaign for good practice and support the rights and payment of music creators throughout the industry. The Media Committee of The Ivors Academy […]
Speaking about Wednesday’s new appointment, Academy CEO Graham Davies has said: “On behalf of The Ivors Academy I would like to congratulate Rt Hon Nicky Morgan on her new appointment of Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport this week. We welcome Nicky’s extensive background in Education and Equalities, and look forward to […]
If you are a composer who has received recent commissions in any medium or genre we would be grateful if you could spare a short amount of time to take the survey. Complete the survey here The survey is anonymous; we will not collect identifying information such as your name, email address or IP address. […]
Over the past ten years, I’ve had the privilege to work on our unique awards – The Ivors and The Ivors Composer Awards (previously the British Composer Awards). What makes an Ivor Novello Award (and previously a British Composer Award) so respected and prestigious is two-fold: categories are judged exclusively by music creators, so truly […]
The Ivors Academy has joined over 200 music organisations who are committing to taking positive action towards gender parity in music. Keychange is a pioneering international initiative, led by PRS Foundation and supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, which is empowering women to transform the future of the music industry to […]
We put creators at the forefront of the campaign to get this legislation approved. Creators need their rights and livelihoods protected and while not perfect, the Copyright Directive shares responsibilities and allows innovation to flourish. Creators are fundamental to the future digital economy and this legislation helps safeguard the livelihoods of future generations of composers […]
Article adapted from Music Week’s publication, available here. The legislation addresses the ‘value gap’ in relation to content on upload sites such as YouTube, who has warned of “unintended consequences” of a new licensing system for user-generated content. The Ivors Academy has taken the fight to YouTube by recording a cover of Snow Patrol’s Just Say Yes and […]
Here is the text of the letter in full: Dear Member of the European Parliament, The undersigned organisations of authors – representing hundreds of thousands of voters who are writers, screenwriters, filmmakers, composers and songwriters – urge you to seize this once in a decade opportunity and support the successful adoption of the Copyright Directive. […]
Dear Members of the European Parliament, We, music creators, are fundamentally open to the changes of the world. We defend freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the freedom to innovate more passionately than anyone. Sharing new ideas and connecting with people is our raison d’être. But our livelihoods and the cultural […]
Currently there are three versions of the directive, the original one drafted by the European Commission in 2016 and the significantly amended versions passed by the European Parliament and the EU Council last year. Talks between these three groups, known as the Trialogue, have been put in place to agree on one amended version of the text, ahead of a final […]
