Belgium has adopted a non-waivable remuneration right in addition to the exclusive rights for streaming. Artists welcome this valuable provision that represents an important measure to actually ensure appropriate and proportionate remuneration to performers. It will also enable more artists to create new music in a fairer digital environment.
After months of political debate and a marathon session in Parliament, last Thursday Belgium approved the final text that transposes the EU Copyright Directive adopted in 2019.
Article 18 of the EU Directive grants artists and authors the right to receive “appropriate and proportionate remuneration” for the actual use of their works on platforms.
The remuneration mechanism for artists and authors that Belgian legislators have opted for is a non-waivable remuneration right collected directly from streaming platforms and subject to mandatory collective management.
IAO congratulates Belgian artists for this new right that already applies in countries as Spain, Hungary and Slovakia and is considered by our organization as the best solution to improve the poor remuneration that artists currently receive for the digital exploitation of their recordings.
This new provision is the result of exemplary lobbying work carried out by the Belgian artists’ CMO PlayRight, with the priceless support of the featured artists coalitions De Muziekgilde and FACIR, the government negotiator Tom Kestens (former IAO Board Director), in close collaboration with the Belgian actors representatives.
In a digital environment that has put aside the interests of the artistic community for years, a remuneration right, as the one recently introduced in the Belgian legislation, is not only necessary but essential to secure sustainability to a market whose rules were dictated overnight by the labels and platforms.
Nacho García Vega