London College of Creative Media is proud to announce that written evidence by Anthony Hamer-Hodges, Programme Leader - Music Business Management, has been published with regards to the “Economics of music streaming” inquiry launched by the UK Parliament.
Music streaming in the UK brings in more than £1 billion in revenue with 114 billion music streams in the last year. However, artists can be paid as little as 13% of the income generated. With streaming currently accounting for more than half of the global music industry’s revenue, this inquiry looks at the business models operated by streaming platforms and the impact on artists’ revenues.
Conducted by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), the inquiry will also consider possible actions to protect the industry from piracy in the wake of steps taken by the EU on copyright and intellectual property rights. In order to do so, industry experts, artists and record labels have been invited to share their perspectives, providing evidence for consideration.
Anthony Hamer-Hodges has more than 20 years of experience across many aspects of the entertainment industry as a DJ, journalist, record label and artist manager, streaming music start-up founder and brand licensing lawyer. His evidence focused on the economics and business models of music streaming, the varied rights framework as well as royalties and market shares.
“Many artists and songwriters are unhappy with the current streaming settlement, which owes much to the old business models of the 20th century combined with the ‘winner takes all’ nature of the online economy. The industry needs to address these issues and develop appropriate responses, especially in light of the additional challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a leading higher education institution for music and music business degrees in the UK, at LCCM we teach our students the fundamentals of the industry, including how to make the most of their creativity in the modern streaming economy,” said Anthony. “We wanted to share and demonstrate our expertise, and to ensure that LCCM would be heard and be part of this important debate.”
Anthony’s evidence has been published alongside contributions submitted by record labels, experts and artists including Radiohead and Elbow. The DCMS inquiry was prompted by the #BrokenRecord campaign on social media started by Mercury Music Prize-winning musician Tom Gray, guitarist and vocalist of the band Gomez. Gray, who first brought attention to the issue in May 2020, will be LCCM’s special guest for the BoxTalk event on Wednesday 24 February.