THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled proposed legislation to give musicians more rights over their royalties, but artists yesterday reacted angrily to the draft law.

The proposed legislation is designed to make sure that the firms collecting music royalties on the behalf of artists also hand them over to the performers, composers and producers who were involved in making a piece of music.

But the move has angered bands such as Radiohead and Pink Floyd, who accused the European Commission of breaking promises to tackle the problem of musicians’ missing pay.

“We are deeply disappointed by your choice to defend the interests of a minority of managers and stakeholders,” said a letter signed by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, singer Sandie Shaw, producer CJ Bolland and the director of Younison, an artists’ lobby, Kelvin Smits.

By the commission’s own assessment, collection societies – up to 250 of which operate in Europe – keep “substantial amounts of money” on their books, pending distribution.

In an impact assessment made ahead of today’s announcement, the commission said that in 2010, major societies owed €3.6 billion in royalties to the creators of the music.

Artists say the figure is in fact much higher and that societies have no incentive to pay up quickly, because of the returns they can make on the money in their hands.

Some 5 to 10 per cent of payments were kept for as long as three years after they were collected, the commission said.

The draft law, which will need approval from the European Parliament and the EU’s 27 member countries, proposes that societies have 12 months after the financial year in which a song was played to pay royalties.

Funds whose royalty-owner remains unidentified could be kept by the collecting society after five years.

“You have broken your promises and encouraged the management of collecting societies to keep the fruits of our creativity,” read the artists’ letter to the commission.

“You stole our hopes.”

The artists say the five-year grace period will only encourage the collecting societies to keep the money they owe and reduces the incentive to locate the rights-holder.

“You thus legitimise one of the most problematic forms of embezzlement adopted by some collecting societies in Europe,” their letter reads.

Societies say they try to pay rights-holders as quickly as they can and that many already pay their members much quicker than the draft law demands.

The law also aims to tackle piracy by expanding the amount of music which can be played by online companies such as Apple’s iTunes, that need licences from the societies before they can offer their services. – (Reuters)