The overall income level of musicians in my country is low
Music industry copyright revenue is still meager
The living environment of musicians in my country has improved, but they still face many difficulties and challenges.
The "2020 Chinese Musicians Report" shows that the average music income of musicians is still at a low level, with full-time musicians accounting for only 10%, and musicians generally have weak copyright awareness and high rights protection costs.
□ Legal system network trainee reporter Xing Guohan and Zou Xingyu
The royalty income of domestic musicians is still not ideal.
The "2020 Chinese Musicians Report" recently released by the Communication University of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") shows that the general income level of musicians in my country has increased, but the overall level is low.
52% of musicians have no music income, 24% of musicians’ music income accounts for less than 5% of total income, 7% of musicians’ music income accounts for 6% to 20% of total income, and only 7% of musicians’ music income Revenue accounted for 100%.
The cost of music creation is not directly proportional to income, resulting in low professional participation of musicians. Many musicians can only engage in occupations that are not related to music and use their main business to "feed" music to maintain their creation.
One of the main reasons for the imbalance in the income structure of the music industry and the overall low income level is still the meager or even no copyright income in the music industry.
Revenue has increased
According to Zhang Fengyan, a professor at the School of Music and Recording Arts of Communication University of China, the income level of musicians in my country has increased and the income channels are diversified. Over 70% of the interviewed musicians earn income from digital music, and more than half of musicians have increased their digital music income; The relationship with digital music platforms is getting closer; the performance market is becoming more mature and opportunities for musicians are gradually increasing.
According to the "Report", among the musicians whose music income rose by 50%, 38.22% of musicians’ music income is mainly from royalties, 27.75% of musicians’ music income is mainly from music production, and 24.61% of musicians’ music The main source of income is music performances.
And as the legalization of digital music is on the right track, more and more musicians choose digital music platforms. Among the surveyed musician groups, 75% of musicians said they have received digital music income, compared to 2019 41% of the country has increased significantly.
In the past year, the number of registered musicians on digital music platforms has continued to grow. At present, 90% of musicians have settled on digital music platforms, and 79.6% of musicians have released their music works on digital music platforms.
Digital music platforms also pay more attention to distributing corresponding income to musician accounts according to standards such as broadcast volume and advertisements. Music platform exchanges also enable musicians to obtain more publicity resources and encourage musicians to continue to participate in platform activities.
It can be said that digital music platforms are affecting musicians in terms of distribution and income.
Compared with the income of the previous year, 54% of musicians said it had increased.
Platform activities provide musicians with more opportunities and support and are widely welcomed by musicians.
"Report" data shows that about 33% of musicians are supported by the platform's musician program, which is much higher than last year's survey results of only 13% of musicians who participated in the musician program.
At present, major music platforms have begun to promote the musician support plan as a type of project that can win-win with musicians, and musicians have more possibilities and choices to enter the musician plan.
Few active rights protection
In the context of the times when the country attaches great importance to the development of cultural industries, the living environment of musicians in my country has improved, but they still face many difficulties and challenges.
The "Report" shows that the current average music income of musicians is still at a low level, with full-time musicians accounting for only 10%, and musicians generally have weak copyright awareness and high rights protection costs.
The royalty income of domestic musicians is far from ideal.
"The prepaid royalties are all written in the contract, but I have never received subsequent royalties from any private company." said Ji Chuchen, a famous musician and lyricist.
In the face of difficulties, many domestic musicians rarely take the initiative to defend their rights.
Ji Chuchen said frankly that the cost of defending rights is high, and he invests a lot of time and energy in order to obtain a small amount of royalties, and he has to find a lawyer, which is also a bad reputation.
"If you choose to defend rights, you will get a reputation as'this person is not good for cooperation'." However, the "Report" shows that more than 90% of musicians believe that music producers should enjoy copyright benefits.
The scope of work of a music producer is broadly defined. Generally speaking, the work of artist packaging, market positioning, songwriting, arranging, recording, mixing, mastering, and marketing can be done by the producer, or according to the job characteristics. Divide down.
With the development of digital music, most of the new generation of music producers are generalists, with more and more producers integrating creation, singing, production, and performance.
Fighting against piracy, improving the copyright management system, establishing copyright profit standards, and reforming music copyright institutions have become the urgent aspirations of music producers.
Improve the rights protection mechanism
"Prosperity and development of cultural undertakings and cultural industries" is the focus of development during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.
In recent years, various powerful national measures have also helped the development of the cultural industry: the re-revision of the Copyright Law in 2020 and the release of 5G high-quality music standards have fully demonstrated the country’s determination to build a cultural industry, including the music industry.
The IFPI (International Association of the Phonographic Industry) previously released the "Music Consumer Study 2019" (MusicConsumerStudy2019) that 96% of Internet users in China used licensed audio streaming media to listen to music in 2019, which is a global participant in audio streaming media The highest percentage of
According to the 2020 Q3 financial report of Tencent Music Entertainment Group, its online music payment rate has increased from 3.8% in 2018 to 8%.
Behind these data is the rapid development of China’s music industry. The huge user base, extremely high streaming media penetration rate, rapidly growing payment ratio, and innovative product forms have made China gradually the world’s most watched and most popular in the digital age. One of the potential music markets.
With the rapid development of the music industry, how to ensure its healthy and sustainable development is particularly important.
The "Amendment to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Amendment"), which will be implemented on June 1, 2021, is more in line with the digital age and pays more attention to the comprehensive protection of the rights and interests of creators.
Xiong Wencong, associate professor of the Law School of Minzu University of China, said that copyright is a right most closely related to music works and music creation.
The amendment further adapts to the dissemination characteristics of cultural works in the digital age, and will provide a more comprehensive protection for the rights of creators.
It meets the needs of technological innovation, cultural industry development and further expansion of opening up, and will promote the continuous improvement of the legalization of digital music platforms, and further recognize the value of copyright.
In Xiong Wencong’s view, the amendments have increased administrative management and management and penalties for copyright infringements, strengthened the crackdown on infringements, and raised the statutory compensation ceiling; the addition of sound recording producers’ right to receive remuneration for broadcasting has expanded sound recording producers The scope of control and remuneration for its recordings can promote the development of the music industry in the digital and network environment, and is of great significance to the music recording industry in my country.
The "Report" also believes that the amendment can better adapt to the development of the digital and information age, keep pace with the times, promote the mutual authorization and widespread dissemination of music works, and promote the establishment of a good online music copyright order and operation ecology, and gradually realize it. The legalized operation of digital music can more comprehensively protect the legal rights of copyright owners.
It is worth noting that with the gradual improvement of the domestic music copyright environment and the development of online music platforms, the music income of musicians is being positively affected.
The "Report" shows that among the musicians who have music income, more than half of the musicians' music income has increased over the previous year. Among the musicians whose music income has increased by 50%, 38.22% are musicians. The main source of music income is royalties, and 63.98% of musicians have signed exclusive agreements with the platform.
From the beginning, the digital music platform cut off the source of piracy at the front end and guided users to consume at the end. Now it has begun to use platform technology to continuously explore more effective copyright management solutions.
The "Report" shows that among musicians who have experienced rights protection, about 30% of them have done rights protection through digital music platforms.
The digital music platform can not only provide professional legal assistance, but also improve the infringement problem from a technical level.
For example, Tencent Musician Version 2.0 will provide professional copyright legal assistance and other resources for settled musicians.
Musicians who have signed an exclusive contract can obtain free work copyright registration and certification services, so that their music works receive reliable copyright protection.