Results of the survey : Performers and the Music Industry
Context
The fall of 2021 has seen performers react to Philémon Cimon speaking out about some contractual practices in the music industry. While more and more performers are asking for a change in these ways of doing things, Artisti wanted to paint a better portrait of the different situations that prevail in the music sector.
We are therefore presenting to you today the results of the Performers and the music industry survey conducted among members during 2022. We would like to thank all the artists who participated in this process.
Outlines:
The analysis of the survey was based on the complete answers provided by the respondents. Indeed, some artists who participated in the survey did not complete it. Therefore, the figures presented are based on a pool of 264 respondents who answered all the questions.
The survey identified several profiles of artists and their respective “business” relations, either with a producer, in the case of a featured artist, or with a record label or a distributor, in the case of a self-producer artist.
Several aspects of the contractual relationship were covered: access to figures, budgets inspection, the transparency of information communicated to artists, etc.
The survey also included a Collective management and copyright component. Among the facts to note: a majority of performers believe that the conditions for fixing or exploiting their performances should be negotiated by someone other than them and in particular by their collective management society. In fact, in light of the figures obtained regarding the contractual relationship of each of the profiles, we see that many artists do not understand all the ins and outs of their contract and that very few turn to the services of a lawyer for support in this process. As for accompanying artists, the vast majority do not sign written contracts for the various services offered as instrumentalists or choristers. Finally, a worrying fact concerning the transfer of neighboring rights: the results of the survey show that this is sometimes the case within the industry.
Conclusion and perspectives:
For Artisti, it is essential that the copyrights of performers are recognized at their fair value, that they are protected and preserved. However, given certain responses to the survey, we understand that there are current practices, ways of doing things, which are detrimental to artists and which do not protect their copyrights. It should be remembered that in order to provide a more equitable framework for the exploitation of the services of performers (record sales, streaming, etc.), Artisti has filed draft tariffs for the Phonogram and Online Music Services. These tariffs aim to ensure that performers receive royalties for the exploitation of their performance from copy 1 and that, for digital exploitations, these royalties go directly from online music services to Artisti – without going through different intermediaries, each taking their percentage before the sums trickle down to the artist.