Music Answers Campaign

"Musicians strive their whole lives to become like alchemists, healing the world with their music, turning the world’s pain to beauty. But we haven’t yet learned how to save ourselves. If we remain passive bystanders, I believe we will watch the music that we most value slowly silenced."  -Maria Schneider

​DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

Music has never been more popular, more accessible, or more valuable. Billions of people around the globe rely on it to enhance their lives. Overall revenue from the use of music has increased exponentially, but only a tiny fraction is finding its way to the people who actually create the music and recordings. The business of music has become unsustainable for those who make it. Therefore:

• WE COME TOGETHER as music writers, performers, and producers to assert our right to just compensation for the use of our work in all media.
• WE OPPOSE the practices of video streaming services, internet service providers, and other businesses that appropriate the value of our music in order to make huge profits selling advertising and data. 
• WE BELIEVE that like uses of music should be treated alike; that the work of music writers, performers, and producers deserves equal treatment and equal protection in all media. 
• WE REQUIRE complete transparency regarding the use of our work, including the terms of and revenue from the business arrangements between digital music services, video streaming sites, and the publishers, record labels, and other entities that administer our work. 
• WE CALL for an immediate end to the discriminatory and secret practices in which some digital music services, vertically-integrated music corporations, and others engage. These include unallocated advances, breakage, equity stakes, side and non-disclosure agreements, and black box payments. 
• WE SUPPORT the report of the United States Copyright Office, which calls for a more equitable, efficient, and transparent music marketplace. 
• WE RESPECTFULLY REQUEST that our elected representatives swiftly adopt legislation in harmony with the spirit and recommendations of the Copyright Office report.

WE INVITE all those interested in music and its future to endorse this campaign.

I support these principles and encourage fellow musicians & music fans to add their endorsement to the Music Answers campaign.