Digital revenues - Impala welcomes Belgian court decision to refer questions to higher EU court

26 September 2024 - Press release

The raison d'être of record labels is to partner with artists, help maximise their revenues and bring new music to fans. The independent sector has put forward a range of proposals to help achieve that. This is important because independent labels in Europe account for 80% of all new music releases.
 
The independents are strong supporters of the performer provisions in the 2019 EU directive on copyright in the digital single market and called for their full and faithful implementation. Unfortunately, the Belgian legislation went further and introduced new rights beyond the scope of the EU rules. This resulted in a constitutional challenge, with the Belgian court deciding today to make a referral to the European court.

IMPALA's Executive Chair Helen Smith commented: "We believe the Belgian court is right to make a referral to the European court of justice. We welcome this outcome and will be examining the judgement closely."

Helen Smith continued: "We have been vocal about the reasons why the type of approach adopted by Belgium would be damaging. We have also flagged the need for other types of streaming reform and we believe our proposals would help improve artist remuneration."
 
The digital market is full of opportunities. At the same time, with so much repertoire being uploaded every day, on top of manipulation and other forms of revenue dilution, it can be a tough market for many artists and labels and this needs to be acknowledged. The changes proposed by IMPALA's streaming plan would boost the digital market, grow revenues, change how revenue is allocated and improve diversity.
 
The Belgian independent association BIMA has also reacted (FR / NL) to the decision, pointing out that the potential for growth of the music market in Belgium is huge. This is the same across Europe. We need to address this and grow the music ecosystem. As BIMA points out, part of this involves concrete measures like tax credits to boost investment by labels, and other mechanisms to support artists. 

IMPALA's Executive Chair Helen Smith concluded: "With labels approached today more than ever before by artists looking for professional partners, and recent studies in the UK showing that artists signed to labels have better outcomes, investment and risk-taking are vital. We invite governments across Europe to take a more strategic and industrial approach to music and to consider which measures will really move the needle in terms of investment and revenue flowing back to artists and their commercial partners. We also point to our streaming plan and repeat our request to avoid new "value gaps" and fix any "unintended consequences" of streaming reforms implemented so far."