London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Jul 13, 2025

Streaming saved music industry from piracy only to plunder creators’ revenues – UK Parliament committee

Streaming saved music industry from piracy only to plunder creators’ revenues – UK Parliament committee

UK MPs say the government should look into possible anti-competitive practices in the music streaming industry, where powerful big companies thrive while music creators struggle to stay afloat.

The music streaming model may have saved the industry from being wiped out by piracy, but it is unfavorable to the very people whose creativity makes the music scene flourish: musicians, songwriters and others. That’s the warning coming from the parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which released a scolding report on the state of the streaming business on Thursday.


Since the maturing of the new business model, “major music companies have experienced historic profit margins” and are consolidating even more power. Meanwhile, “performers, songwriters and composers receive only a small portion of revenue.” Some have been struggling to make ends meet since the Covid-19 pandemic denied them revenue from live events.

The report was released after an eight-month-long inquiry into music streaming, which allows users to consume as much content as they want via the internet in exchange for either paying a monthly subscription fee or hearing ads chosen by the hosting platform. The approach emerged in the second half of the 2000s and has since become the dominant distribution format, obliterating the share of physical copies and pushing aside digital downloads, both legal and illegal.

In the UK, streaming currently makes up over 70% of recorded music revenues. The market is dominated by a handful of platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, Amazon and Apple, with Google’s ads-driven service in the lead. A whopping 45% of British streamed music consumers tune in to YouTube at least once a week. Meanwhile, Spotify has the lion’s share of around 44% of all premium subscription accounts in the UK, tailed by Amazon and Apple with a 25% share each.

The platforms only get an estimated 30% to 34% of the revenue, with the rest going to rights holders. That pot is split between master rights holders, i.e. record labels and publishers, and song rights holders, i.e. artists, composers and songwriters, who claim approximately 78.5% and 21.5%, respectively.

The disparity was inherited from times when music distribution involved manufacturing and shipping actual physical copies. Many creators believe common recording deals have often not been fair, even in the old times, and amounts to exploitation today, in the age of streaming.

A survey cited by the report showed that in 2020 roughly half of performers in the UK received no revenue whatsoever from streaming, while over 35% received no more than €1,000 ($1,180). Just 1.13% received more than €10,000.

Many artists consider the streaming of their music as a form of promotion for the main source of their income: live concerts. Covid-19 threw a wrench into that arrangement. Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, one of the witnesses interviewed by the committee, said some of the music engineers he knows had to become “Amazon drivers” after losing touring income.

The record industry is dominated by the ‘Big Three’ – Warner, Sony and Universal – which have a lot of leverage to preserve the status quo. Their licensing arrangements with the streaming giants are notoriously opaque, shielded by non-disclosure agreements from the public and creators.

“We don’t even know what a stream is worth. Does anyone?” Nile Rodgers wondered. The songwriter, producer and artist was another witness for the report.

"Can anyone tell me what a stream is actually worth? You can’t and there is no way you could even find it."


Meanwhile, the streaming companies have a lot of influence on how the content they host is served to customers. Spotify, for example, creates various editorial playlists. Getting onto one often results in a large boost to a song’s prominence among the audience.

One performer told MPs that they were offered promotion by some playlist curators in exchange for a fee. It was essentially a pay-for-play ‘payola’ arrangement, which is illegal in the UK, the report noted. Questions over possible manipulation were raised about algorithmic content curation.

The report suggests a number of legislative measures that would make remuneration more fair to music creators. It also suggests that the industry should be probed by the Competition and Markets Authority for possible anti-competition practices and by the Advertising Standards Authority for possible unethical content curation.

There is also an issue of ‘safe harbor’, a legal protection from criminal liability that hosting platforms enjoy in relation to user-uploaded illegal content. The provision gives social media leeway in policing what people publish on their platforms, as long as they react to copyright infringement claims in a speedy manner. MPs said it may give unfair advantage to ads-driven streamers compared to subscription-based services.

“Streaming has undoubtedly helped save the music industry following two decades of digital piracy but it is clear that what has been saved does not work for everyone,” the report said. But now the model exacerbates “structural problems within the recorded music industry. Streaming needs a complete reset.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
From Mystery to Meltdown, Crisis Within the Trump Administration: Epstein Files Ignite A Deepening Rift at the Highest Levels of Government Reveals Chaos, Leaks, and Growing MAGA Backlash
Trump Slams Putin Over War Death Toll, Teases Major Russia Announcement
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
×