Dear Songwriter.

I’m sure you all must have seen in the press over the past few weeks, the alarming stories of just how bad the streaming rates are. To name just a couple: John Legend's 'All of Me" streamed 55m times and only earned $3,400 for its creators, Pharrell's 'Happy', streamed 43m times and that earned $2,700 for its creators. A million streams earns approximately a pitiful $60 in royalties which is shared between the songwriters and publishers. This is the scary reality we are all facing, you will now be seeing this 1st hand in your own royalty statements and the upsetting news of friends and work co-writers losing their homes or quitting music and we’re not talking about writers who aren’t working, we’re talking about writers who had similar releases a couple of years ago who could sustain an income from physical sales, downloading and old format radio play who are now unable to due to the extremely low paying digital streaming rates.

This situation is hitting songwriters on every level now. It is clear to all, looking at the cold hard facts of our royalties tanking in our statements, to the shares of the streaming companies rocketing and seeing the download market crashing that streaming has been priced incorrectly as being compared to radio.

The fact is, it should have been priced as a new format: 'Play on Demand' as it is clearly replacing physical and downloading. This, combined with a combination of subterfuge and overburdened royalty collections, has seen our, the Creators, income decimated beyond all recognition. In other words we're not receiving a fair slice of the pie! 

We understand these rates are within the law but we strongly believe they have been calculated in error, we appreciate this was a new format when the rates were negotiated but it was after all new territory within the music industry and we now strongly feel with the crash of the physical and download market, profit from the streaming companies and the fact songwriters can’t sustain an income from streaming revenue the deals need to be amended to reflect fair pay for all.

This letter isn’t about blaming anyone but more to have the chance to say how we feel as we don’t have that opportunity when it comes to deciding rates of pay for our own music and perhaps if songwriters thoughts had been taken into consideration we would not be finding ourselves in this desperate situation.

This is about the us, the songwriters and creators having a voice and the chance to speak up and say “we don’t agree with the rates that have been negotiated on our behalf” and that if the streaming companies aren’t willing to pay fair rates to all parties then the songwriters will have no other choice but to demand all their works be removed until such a time that fair rates can be re-negotiated. 

I urge you all to sign the following and join in having a voice that we wish for transparency and fair pay for our musical content online.  

 

Victoria Horn *Lady V (the Songwriter Awareness Collective) 

Contributions from:  Tim Fraser, Si Hulbert & Dominic King. 

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To whom it concerns PRS, ASCAP, BMI & SECAC

As a member of your Music Royalty Collection Society or a person whose music is collected by default through your territory.

First let it be known that I appreciate all the work you do for all the songwriters in collecting our royalties and that I realize the epic size of the data you are having to collect and process on our behalf.   

But I feel I have to write to you to express my concerns and wishes.  I also wish for you to be aware than under the current streaming rates most of the songwriting community that are having placements and who are still active writers won’t be able to sustain an income unless action is taken urgently. 

•   I would like it to be known that I don’t agree with NDA’s being used to negotiate deals that don’t reflect in my best interest; transparency is needed and as a creator I feel it is only right that I be able to see the deals negotiated on my behalf for my content. 

•   I also wish for transparency to be used in all areas of business we do: for it to be made known what exchange rates are used when income stream from different territories comes in on our statement and the commission % rate that was charged to be shown. 

•   As the labels now do not traditionally ‘manufacture’ records, I feel that the unfair splits in some circumstance as bad as 93-95% in favor of the labels must  immediatly be adjusted to a fair and equal 50/50% recording and publishing. 

•   I believe that under this new model, a percentage of the advertising revenue  (Ad Rev) made by the streaming services should to be shared and split with the creators, as without our content they would be unable to generate advertising revenue and indeed without the content, these aforementioned companies simply would not exist. 

•   I also believe on all ad supported lyric sites posting our lyrics, that a percentage share of the AdRev monies generated should be split with the songwriters. The data information to be shared from these sites to go to PRS and other Societes showing which song lyrics have been viewed so that the money can be distributed to all the appropriate writers and that this money should not sit in a black box clause situation. I would also suggest that PRS and the other Societies need to contact the NMPA and claim the winning monies from the illegal "Pirate" Lyric site cases and allocate and pay what is due to their respective songwriters. 

• I wish for all streaming sites using 'Play on Demand' and similiar to not be able to devalue our music by posting "Free Music". We understand the streaming rates are within the law but we strongly believe they have been calculated in error. We appreciate when the rates were negotiated for this it was a new format but compairing the rates to radio was incorrect. The fact is, they should have been priced as a new format: "Play on Demand". The crash of the physical and download market is proving this, as is profit from the streaming companies and the fact songwriters can’t sustain an income from streaming revenue. Also when the deals were negotiated Ad revenue was ommited. The deals need to be amended immediately to reflect 'Fair Pay' for all and if these issues are not swiftly addressed the songwriters will have no other option but to demand that their works be removed from all streaming sites. 

•   I also feel that "Piracy" needs to be addressed on a ZERO tolerance basis. It has gone on for far too long and I would urge that PRS and other Societies implement a department designated to track websites not paying for usage of music and to either collect that lost revenue or issue "Take Down Notices" with immediate effect. In the long term I would support the creation of a Web Sheriff’s Office, co-funded by Google, the ISPs and the music industry, to take down offending pirate sites immediately in liason with bodies like the City of London anti-piracy team PIPCU.

•   I also believe that the lack of "Income Stream" from most worldwide dance venues is unacceptable, especially as the situation has been going on for some 30 years and that all Bands and Artist "Touring Money" needs to be calculated in a more fair way; we also wish to have a say in how this is negotiated. 

•  I wish make it clear that I believe YouTube has hidden behind the DMCA “Safe Harbour" clause for too long, and whilst it claims to be technically ‘legal’, it is undoubtedly morally abhorrent, and they must pay us "the Creators" fairly for our content and share their meta data with the PROs. It is obvious if these issues are not swiftly addressed the Songwriters will have no other option but to demand that their works be removed from all streaming sites. 

•  It is also unacceptable for YouTube, Google and other search engines to promote illegal "Pirate" Music websites and song ripping software sites.   

We look forward to working with you on resolving these issues starting now. 

Yours sincerely