As Digital Music News reported, legendary guitarist and Led Zeppelin founder, Jimmy Page, gave a strong opinion about streaming royalties in a recent Instagram post. His reaction came after a debate in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British Parliament held in late November 2020.
According to the report, during the nearly three-hour-long session, which is part of the DCMS Committee’s much-publicized investigation into streaming royalties, upcoming artist Nadine Shah signaled that she struggles to pay her rent despite having more than 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify (and a similarly strong following on other platforms). Subsequently, DCMS Committee Chair and Solihull MP Julian Knight said he’d learned that some would-be witnesses were “reluctant” to address lawmakers “because they fear action may be taken against them if they speak in public.”
Page reacted by stating that he fully appreciates “the dilemma surrounding streaming royalties that should be rightfully paid to all musicians and writers who made the music. The sooner the streaming companies can make fair payments to all musicians whose music is played on or viewed via the internet, and pay fair royalties to those who give us great pleasure from those who are exploiting it, the better.”
A recent survey from The Ivors Academy and The Musicians’ Union, both of which are based out of the UK, determined that 82% of artists took home less than £200 (about $266.69) per year in 2019. These stats – as well as the fact that 92 percent of respondents said that just five percent of their 2019 income was attributable to streaming – are worth considering in the broader context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
