Brussels, 11 July, 2012: Europe’s creators are left disappointed and frustrated as the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on Collective Rights Management, entrenches an outdated model and has put the interest of collecting societies’ managers, record labels and publishers ahead of those of the majority of authors.

Today the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive designed to harmonize the way Collecting Societies are managed in Europe. According to Younison and its partners, the proposal, which many had hoped would set new standards for accountability and transparency requirements and facilitate a more modern approach to collective rights management in Europe, has failed to meet the expectations for a new fair deal for Europe’s creative Artists.

Younison, Featured Artists Coalition (UK), Technopol (France) and DJ Monitor (the Netherlands), which had in 2010 formed a pan-European Alliance representing over 6,000 music artists including Robbie Williams, Bob Sinclar, Armin Van Buuren, Pink Floyd, Annie Lennox, Tom Barman, Ozark Henry, Kate Nash and Afrojack has for the past two years been tirelessly demanding for precise, regular and transparent redistribution of all revenues from the exploitation of copyrighted works collected by European collecting societies.

Kelvin Smits, Younison Director stated that, “While creators and citizen are struggling to make ends meet, Commission’s proposal legitimizes the status quo of a system of governance and representation that gives the control of collecting societies to publishers and record companies, with little accountability to the authors they are meant to represent”

Except for online music that represent less than 5% of the revenues of collecting societies (and of authors), the proposal endorses the most damaging aspects of the collective management in the digital economy. Among other things it entitles Collecting Societies to retain revenues from the exploitation of works (except the online music) up until 24 months after the date of collection and allows them to keep non-allocated royalties if not distributed within 5 years, which currently amounts to more than € 5 billion in the EU, thereby failing to address one of the most problematic forms of embezzlement adopted by some collecting societies in Europe.

“The European Commission has failed to deliver on its promise to protect the rights and interests of creators and that the collective management of our rights would be accompanied by strong guarantees, including regular payments and complete information on the use of our works." Says CJ Bolland, one of Europe’s most prominent artist/producer “We can only hope that the European Parliament has the courage to stand up against the interests of a minority of managers and stakeholders to protect the majority of authors, the true engine of culture.”

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For all further info contact :

Kelvin Smits : 0486 32 38 34 / Kelvin@younison.eu

About Younison, FAC, DJ Monitor and Technopol

Younison (www.younison.eu) heads the European platform which gives a voice to artists, composers and musicians who demand that the current collective rights management system be updated and modernised. The objective is to improve transparency and the distribution of revenues gained by the exploitation of artists’ works across Europe and which are collected by collecting societies on behalf of individual artists - and therefore their members.

The Featured Artists Coalition (http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com/) campaigns for the protection of UK performers' and musicians' rights. We want all artists to have more control of their music and a much fairer share of the profits it generates in the digital age. We speak with one voice to help artists strike a new bargain with record companies, digital distributors and others, and are campaigning for specific changes. For more information contact: info at featuredartistscoalition.com

With its roots firmly embedded in Dance Music, DJ Monitor has been successfully monitoring DJ Sets and Live Performances, using Music Recognition Technology since 2005 on thousands of events, clubs and radio stations around the world. DJ Monitor identifies music for rights monitoring purposes and enables hundreds of thousands of artists & composers worldwide to get remunerated through their collecting society. For more information contact: info at djmonitor.com

Technopol is an association born from the techno movement which provides legal and technical advice to people who encounter problems in organising festivals or artistic events related to electronic music. Technopol believes in the potential of electronic music and develops training courses in order to promote the professionalisation of the electronic movement

For more information contact: info at technopol.net