Fair Play for Creators

I am 100% behind this campaign. Artists have a right to be paid for their hard work like any other business. Why is it always the musicians that loose out. This is theft and it is time it was stopped.

It would appear that it is not just 'Google' who would like to avoid fair payments for music usage if they could. Unless this situation is concluded with a fair payment agreement for writers, other corporations will follow 'Google’s' lead and try to avoid a fair payment whilst enlarging their own profits at others expense.

I support PRS for Music in their efforts to get a fair deal for songwriters on YouTube.

It's getting a little difficult to see how musicians are expected to survive. Live music has a pay to play culture, TV companies are asking for free music and downloads are generally ignored in favour of free streaming. In our bonus culture world the problems go way beyond music. It is about the conception of fair play versus greed on a global scale....let's hope this is just a beginning.

I support you in this dispute with Google 100%, lets hope it is resolved soon.

Nobody wants to be robbed of earnings that they are due from their music, but at the same time removing the music is robbing the world of choice.

I think the majority of us who write and play music do it for the pleasure we get from it, but if you do something good, and it is used by someone else, and other people gain enjoyment from it then it is only right that you be paid for its use.....

I agree with PRS for Music, I am yet to release the music i have been working on for 5 years and would like to know I could get some return from it if I did. Being a joiner certainly does not pay the bills so without this plan in place I might as well just sit on the dole singing to myself some more. This YouTube nonsense is driving me mad. Cough up Google! All music lovers should support this.

Fair play for creators!

It's such a shame that there seems to be an increasing number of people who believe that they have the right to own music, but seem to have no concept of where it came from or the need to pay the creator for that work. Music, like any other art form should be available to everyone, but not at the cost of the artist who created it. If people/companies don't/won't pay, people's livelihoods and any future development of creativity are at risk. If you like it, buy it.

I support.

Hi, A lot of these big companies don’t seem to realise the time and effort and hard work that goes into the writing of a song, its only right that the songwriters are paid for their work, I hope it all works out in the end.

Keep up the good work.

This is a fundamentally important issue! We mustn't be bullied.

Copyright is the sole means by which the creator of a work may receive payment for its use - if businesses are able to make profits or gain benefits through that use then by any system of justice a FAIR rate of royalty must be paid by that business to the copyright holder. If a precedent is set that evades such FAIR payment then the cause of the creative artist is set back centuries!

I'm behind you on this one and am also supporting the FAC with their work.

It cannot be right for any organisation to use, or allow to be used, music created by songwriters and composers without their express consent. There is particularly irony in the case of Google/YouTube, a combination of two of the most successful and wealthy internet business models in the world, describing PRS for Music’s stand on behalf of its members as excessive. Keep on the case PRS for Music!

I certainly believe the creators of their product materials should reap the benefits. All royalties due to us should be paid to us. All these web sites using our music...the owners should pay up.

It IS pure bully boy tactics...whole- heartedly support you!

I hope a swift and mutually beneficial resolution to this issue can be reached.

Solidarity yes!

I completely support PRS for Music in attempting to get a fair deal for composers from Google/YouTube, and we must not fall into believing that everything is related to advertising revenue (digital spend is predicted to increase in 2009). At the end of the day, no-one should be allowed to have a business model assumes it can pay next to nothing for the content upon which it is built. All businesses make investment mistakes and have to pay for those mistakes. Google should be no exception, and its potential mistake in buying YouTube won’t actually hurt it that much at all (at 31st Dec 08 it apparently made $4billion net income)?" a decline in profits is hardly the end of the world for a juggernaut like Google.

I fully support the efforts being made by the PRS for Music to take issue against the huge might of Google in this David and Goliath battle. We will win them over if we all join together.

I totally agree with you.

The payment of music creators can't be overlooked in the process of revenue creation for internet based companies, and music delivery to fans.

Hopefully we can resolve this issue soon and continue to promote our music through YouTube.

Any music that is being broadcast - no matter what the medium - should be paid for. We work hard, we invest our time and money. We deserve to be paid. YouTube is just one example of the greed that plaques our industry.

Don't give in, don't let them win please.

I am proud to be a member of PRS for Music and I fully support the campaign for Fair Play for Creators...

I pledge support.

We must not let Google set a precedent like this - once they "legally" stop paying royalties then no-one will and it will be impossible to claw it back.

We all have a calling in this world. Musicians bring us beauty and art as their wares.They literally "sing for their supper". We should humbly pay them.

One voice together - we can be heard.

I support wholly PRS for Music to uphold the royalty rights of writers etc. It's an absolutely necessary and valid response to the ongoing assault on the rights of professional workers in the creative arts to be remunerated properly for their work and rights in perpetuity. Royalties are in fact the 'living pensions' of musicians and must be safeguarded if fairness and quality in music is to survive. I am surprised and disappointed at so-called egalitarian Google. They have a fight on their hands now.

I support the Fair Play campaign as a writer and performer.

Right now music is as strong of a creative force as ever. Unfortunately we find ourselves in a current crisis of music piracy, illegal downloading and hacking. It is imperative for songwriters, recoding artists and the music industry as a whole to come together and fight anyone or any organization trying to exploit them without proper compensation. We all must receive recognition and money due for our hard work! PRS for Music and the other PRO's worldwide are leading the fight against piracy and YouTube.com.

Do they think music grows on trees? The process of creating music and lyrics; paying for its production and exploitation (should you be fortunate enough to get that far) costs an enormous amount of time, talent, brain power and money. The only way there is a hope of some financial return is by putting it out in front of the public. Google has become a great organisation. It will be to their long term benefit, morally and financially, if they play fair with the music providers.

I absolutely agree that like any other endeavour, everyone should be adequately rewarded and that is probably more than true for musicians and writers given the often uncertain nature of their work. Google have certainly benefited from their innovation and enterprise so I find it hypocritical that they should deny other innovators a fair reward. It seems there is more than a touch of 'now we have power we are going to exercise it regardless of fair play to others'!