A long and winding road to fair music rights

Paul McCartney - according to Philip Norman's biography (2016) - had discovered a nice extra source of income as an enterprising musician: the music rights of colleagues. He bought up the rights of others and the money poured in. Friendly and naive, he tipped Michael Jackson to do the same and yes, to his shock, a few years later, music rights of The Beatles were owned by Jackson. McCartney's social and charitable merits are well reflected in the biography. But among biographer and musician there seems to be a blind spot for the dubious sides of rights trading.

That same blind spot makes Mark Koster's no less than two articles (behind paywall) on the business in music rights in NRC of 6 August 2022 unbalanced. He describes a great trade: good prospects, millions ahead, a matter of buying up and collecting. Maybe add one or more investors. And a little later count out your profits. As if the original creative source of this commodity doesn't count. As if the intangible value of what is traded is dwarfed by its value in euros or dollars. As if there are no codes in development for fair practice, fair share and fair pay. As if all workers in the chain should not be allowed to share a little extra in mega-profits. As if no one in recent times has pointed out the limits of the super-capitalism that has developed.

The good publishers always took and take responsibility: they fund content-rich but commercially less successful productions with the profits from successes. For these music rights entrepreneurs, that should certainly be the guiding principle too. Fund music with it!

Copyright trading need not be a taboo. But keep venture investors at bay. Show in your behaviour that these are cultural products. Keep income and capital differences between the original authors, the collaborators in the production, other - less successful - authors and the owner of the rights within limits. From profits, help pay for an economically healthy and content-rich creative sector.

The road to this is undoubtedly - as the Beatles sang - 'a long and winding road'. If necessary, legislation should just asphalt this road and protect the artist community from itself.