MU Says Labels ‘Screwing Musicians’

The UK’s Musicians’ Union is planning to take the major labels to court because it claims they’re ripping off its members over the royalties paid under contracts signed before the days of streaming and downloads.

Speaking at last week’s The Great Escape in Brighton, MU assistant general secretary Horace Trubridge said the three major record labels “don’t play fair” and “are screwing musicians.”

Trubridge, a founding member of R&B/doo-wop band Darts, explained how he still gets royalty statements from Warner every six months and the last one was for less than £100. The 12 percent royalty rate that Darts is currently paid has multiple deductions, while Trubridge argued that heritage bands should be on a streaming royalty rate of roughly 30 percent with no deductions. He said the deductions Warner is making include the costs of “breakages” and “returns.”

“Who’s broken a digital download recently? Who’s returned a stream?” he asked. “It’s absurd and record companies think it’s fair to do that. The right that the record company assume ownership of in order to collect revenues from digital service providers didn’t exist when I signed my record contract.”