Copyright policy has become a central concern of the EU in its development of the single digital market. One of the key intermediaries in the copyright regime is the Collective Management Organisation (CMO or Collecting Society). It is responsible for collecting royalties and granting licenses so that creators can be rewarded for their work and consumers can access it in public spaces, via, broadcasting, and from streaming services and the like. For the EU, the regulatory framework for CMOs is key to the success of the single digital market. This paper examines the intention and the effect of that regulatory framework as it applies to CMOs responsible for music. Based on a comparative analysis funded by the RCUK-funded CREATe Research Centre, we argue that the EU’s regulatory strategy, and its privileging of competition, threatens the diversity of musical culture in Europe and the marginalisation of the smaller repertoires.
While copyright as such has been a major regulatory issue at EU level for several decades, the regulation of CMOs has only recently moved to the top of the agenda. It did so with a 2014 Directive (due to implemented in 2016) that addresses the particular issue of licensing music for streaming services that cross national borders, and that is intended to prevent ‘geo-blocking’ – familiar to users of YouTube - where a video in one country is not available in another.
Drawing on comparison of the operation of CMOs in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK, we question the EU’s assumption that the problem is one of ‘competition’ (or its absence). Indeed, deploying competition in these circumstances is likely to lead to a number of consequences that will be harmful both individual actors, some CMOs, and EU creative culture more generally.
