(AllHipHop News) The Worldwide Independent Network has set up a new initiative centered around their “Fair Digital Deals Declaration.” Over 750 indie labels from around the world – including Rostrum, Stones Throw, Tommy Boy, XL and Glassnote – have signed onto the agreement.
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WIN’s Fair Digital Deals Declaration commits the signatory companies to “treat their artists fairly in agreements relating to digital exploitation of artists’ work in recorded music agreements with third parties.”
The announcement of the agreement coincides with the “Worldwide Declaration Signing Day” social media campaign scheduled for today (June 16). Updates will be shared via the @winformusic Twitter feed and awareness of the campaign will be spread using the hashtag #fairdigitaldeal4artists.
The declaration contains the following five key points:
- Ensure that artists’ share of download and streaming revenues is clearly explained in recording agreements and royalty statements in reasonable summary form.
- Account to artists a good-faith pro-rata share of any revenues and other compensation from digital services that stem from the monetization of recordings but are not attributed to specific recordings or performances.
- Encourage better standards of information from digital services on the usage and monetization of music.
- Support artists who choose to oppose, including publicly, unauthorized uses of their music.
- Support the collective position of the global independent record company sector.
Alison Wenham, Chairman of WIN said in a statement:
A healthy commercial relationship based on mutual trust and partnership between artists and labels is critical to the long term financial health of our industry. We believe that this new initiative, which seeks to put in place simple, fair and transparent guidelines for labels dealing with third party digital partners is a template for best practice. We invite companies – majors and indies – to join the hundreds of companies who have already signed and put a stop to the practise of diverting revenues from the artists without whom we would not have a business.
For information about the Worldwide Independent Network and the Fair Digital Deals Declaration visit winformusic.org.
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