In his latest Cultural Policy Report, the Danish Minister of Culture writes that "if Denmark is to have a strong cultural life, we need to know the conditions in which cultural life operates." We can only agree. Specifically, through their organisations, music artists want a working group to investigate how we ensure artists' rights and a fair and transparent streaming economy

 

Debate article by Sara Indrio - Chairperson of the Danish Artist Association, Tobias Stenkjær - Chairperson of Danish Popular Authors, Lasse Matthiesen - Chairperson of Autor, Thomas Sandberg - Chairperson of the Danish Musicians Association, Juliana Hodkinson - Chairperson of the Danish Composers Association, Ole Dreyer - Chairman of the Board of Musikforlæggerne, Loui Törnqvist - Chairperson of Koda - published in Kulturmonitor 17 December 2024

Before Minister of Culture Jakob Engel-Schmidt went on maternity leave, he announced the establishment of a working group for literature to look at the low payment to authors and others in the digital book sector. It shows both responsibility and foresight that the Minister of Culture actively chooses to look at the conditions of art in a digitalised reality.

We think the minister should also set up such a working group for music.

Music has been the canary in the digital gold mine for over a decade, where streaming has created a digital exploitation of the professional artists, songwriters and musicians who create music.

Latest figures show that Spotify ended the third quarter of 2024 with a profit of €484 million, which is due to 21 million new paying subscribers in combination with the so-called bundling, which reduces the payment to artists by around five per cent. (link: Spotify Reports Third Quarter 2024 Earnings - Spotify). The bundling model has been used in the US, but we can assume that Spotify will transfer the business model to the European market.

So while users are flocking to music streaming services, the payment for each streamed track has become too low. Therefore, it will require close co-operation and more knowledge about global market mechanisms and business models if we are to actively reverse this market development.

New reports clearly show the need

Earlier this year, a report from the Nordic governance collaboration Polaris showed that streaming is consumers' favourite platform for finding and listening to music. 95 per cent of all users across the Nordic region stream music (Link: PowerPoint Presentation) The majority favour free subscriptions on platforms like YouTube and Spotify Free. Of course, this has a negative impact on artists' income.

In a new report from the International Artist Organisation (IAO) (link Streams & Dreams: The Impact of the DSM Directive on EU Artists and Musicians PART 2, 2024 - IAO Music) asked around 10,000 music artists in Europe about their satisfaction with streaming. Over 90 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the payment and the insight they get into sales and availability data. This is despite the fact that the EU has created a new directive to ensure the same.

In other words, it's not a sustainable music industry when virtually all music listening takes place in a place where the creators have no insight into the money flows and are not paid fairly.

A democratic problem for the future of fans and communities

Music is a crucial parameter for diversity, inclusion and social mobility. It is the most widely used and most practised of the arts and is a crucial cornerstone of our lives and communities. Therefore, it is completely unfair when a fundamentally unsustainable digital industry is allowed to starve the musical food chain. It is a shared responsibility to ensure a diverse music offering that is accessible to everyone in the future. Big tech and streaming services are currently far from taking on this task.

A working group is needed to investigate how the new legislation from the EU directive will be implemented in practice, and more knowledge is needed about how we can regulate the streaming market to provide more fair and sustainable conditions for music artists. This knowledge is crucial to ensure that the future of Danish music is sustainable - and not decided in Los Angeles by tech companies.