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BASCA backs PRS action against SoundCloud
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 28 August 2015
The British Academy Of Songwriters, Composers And Authors yesterday gave its backing to PRS’s litigation against SoundCloud, insisting that the digital firm’s current business model “financially damages our members”.
The organisation’s CEO Vick Bain said: “As an organisation that works to protect our members’ rights we fully support PRS For Music’s decision to commence legal proceedings against SoundCloud. We acknowledge that streaming is a fantastic means of listening to and enjoying music but SoundCloud’s intransigence in refusing to be licensed through PRS For Music means their model financially damages our members”.
Referencing BASCA’s campaign for an overhaul of the way digital income is shared between stakeholders, she continued: “BASCA exists to protect the professional interests of its members and when we launched our The Day The Music Died Campaign earlier this year one of our key aims was to ensure the removal of safe harbour provisions – platforms such as SoundCloud hide behind this legislation to deny responsibility for the amount of music that is illegally uploaded and shared on its site”.
“But we know they are very much aware of how their platform is used. We encourage all online services to establish frameworks that will fairly compensate songwriters, composers and authors – the PRS For Music online licence is the best way that this can be achieved. SoundCloud has had five years to respond to PRS’s request and should not be allowed to continue to hide behind safe harbour as a reason to deny our members the royalties they’re rightly entitled to”.
Those sentiments were echoed by BASCA’s new Chairman Stephen McNeff, who said: “At BASCA we are always happy to embrace innovative technology as a way for music creators to be heard, but our rights must be protected through the proper licensing mechanisms”.
