Fair Play for Creators

YouTube have got away with this too long.

Don't let the media might of Google bully us.

Artists should be paid for their hard work, just like in any other job.

Google's behaviour rankles considering the company's supposedly 'responsible' ethos and it's in-house slogan of 'don't be evil'. Classic case of a big business with it's eye purely on the profit margins.

Thank you for what you are doing for us all. It's vital that those of us who make our living by writing music receive the royalties our work has earned.

Corporations the size of Google should be upholding the law and the rights of creators at a time when the general public are beginning to believe music should be free and that composers should consider themselves lucky that their music is being made available to a world-wide audience on YouTube.

I think it's outrageous that in the public eye music is losing its value and there's no reason Google should not pay the going rate for the use of people's works. Songwriters and musicians have to earn a living too!

I pledge my support for the Fair Play for Creators campaign.

As a musician and composer I'm getting thoroughly sick of the attitude that what we do doesn't seem to have a value as we obviously are involved in what people think is a luxury Industry.Google is happy earning millions itself through advertising on it's site.They wouldn't approve if some other corporation found a way to use Googles site for free advertising would they.

Me and my band support you whole-heartedly x x x x x

In an environment where everyone expects music to be free, PRS For Music is an organisation which continues to champion fair recompense for musician's rights. I was sad to see Google removing premium content music and I hope that they will negotiate a fair rate with PRS For Music to reward those musicians who draw so many to their website.

I agree.

Google are one of the most successful businesses in the world today, and yet they seem intent on profiteering off our work, and probably reckon they can get away with it because of their muscle. That attitude is frankly disgusting. At the end of the day, if it wasn't for us, they wouldn't have premium content to go on their services in the first place!

They should pay.

I think that websites that attract audiences and make money through the free plays of an artists music should pay a small % of the earnings to the artist. Internet Giants like YouTube should be more sensitive to this, I doubt that the royalties that artists earn take a huge amount off their profits. Having music videos up for free on YouTube makes the customer less likely to buy a DVD of music videos. Therefore it is only fair that the artists earn a royalty for plays on the internet.

The songwriting revenue that the PRS for Music collects for both myself and the writers I manage is one of the most important sources of income for a writer, and without such income it would be extremely difficult to continue making music for a living. The writer / artist has always been the last to get paid in this industry, and now if companies like Google had their way we wouldn't even be paid at all. Now is the time to stand our ground and negotiate a fair deal for writers, and I implicitly trust the PRS for Music to negotiate the best deal on my behalf. We're not greedy people, we just want what's fair so we can continue to make music.

We get nothing for nothing why should they.

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! What a great site, finally somewhere to share these concerns and team up to do something constructive and useful about it. Thank you.

Time for our side of the story to be heard.

To the owners of Google: Please realise that for every high profile member lucky enough to earn a good income from their work, there are 10,000 more, like me, talented and dedicated, but who work 24/7 in difficult family circumstances, and to whom a cheque for 20 is significant. Please don't take away the hopes and dreams of so many, when you have been fortunate enough to be blessed with success and realise your own. We only have one life; there is no need to be greedy as we go along.

Thank you for standing up for the musicians in this David and Goliath battle.

Music is our profession, not our hobby. Google needs to understand and respect that musical creation has a commercial value. And pay for it!

Sort it out Google!!

No one wants to pay for music anymore. I might have to start busking.

No other trade or profession is expected to work for nothing,so why should composers/writers

It's important that with all the bad press the music business gets, that the general public are aware that musicians rely on many streams of revenue to stay afloat. For many of us PRS for Music supplies a very important stream of money. Most of us are from rich superstars and really do leave on a shoe string in order to pursue our chosen craft!

Surely the real problem is all the file sharing sites where people can download stuff free and keep it! I'm not in the same league as most of the contributors here, I finance my own albums like thousands of others -so when you find that an album has been downloaded 1200 times from one torrent site alone - it's heartbreaking. I could live on those album sales for a year!

I agree 100% with the previous comments, all writers should be paid what they deserve!.. You wouldnt go into a shoe shop and expect free shoes.. neither should you expect free music!

Public awareness and perception of how songwriters and performers actually earn a living is needed to be highlighted in a big way here... eg, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/10/google-music-prs-youtube?commentpage=1. I believe this is a significant part of the problem, albeit indirectly in relation to the Google issue.

I expect content distributors such as Google and YouTube to be manning the barricades against the Something For Nothing culture - not to undermine them.

There are far too many individuals and corporations who believe that unlimited, unlicensed music is a basic human right. I wonder how many of those above would be happy for others to demand that such goods and services that they provide should also be available free of charge and license?

It would be good for the internet and the public to realise that music creators need to eat and have a roof over their heads...

Google should wake up and pay its dues to the people who are helping it make millions.

Yes

I think a fair agreement should be made to stop this from escalating into a situation where publishers and songwriters will not be able to be benefitted from the exploitation of their musical works online

The hardest thing to do is create music that is memorable and lasts the test of time. However it's easy to exploit it and it's even easier to copy it. The real art is in breathing life into it to begin with. So let's reward that creativity and not let corporate giants exploit it.

I have been a Writer and Publisher Member for 10 years and I appreciate and support you 100%.

Do not let them get away with unfair terms.

Good luck with your endeavours and it's good to know you're looking out for us!