Blog Post 3: Regulation in the Music Industry

Researching the regulatory framework in the music industry is very important for me so that I can make sure I comply with these rules when creating a music video for my band. The main regulation in the music industry is copyright/music regulation, regulation on music platforms and regulation of circulation.

The Regulatory Bodies of Music Copyright
There are regulatory bodies which make sure bands and artists are receiving royalties from record companies and other organisations for the use of their content. This is because the artist owns the copyright to their song, and is the only person that can control how the music is used and who can copy the music. In the UK, the copyright lasts for 70 years after the year which the author dies.

There are several companies that manage the royalties from copyrighted content:
• Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) - oversees the collection of royalties from sales
• Performing Rights Society (PRS) - license the use of songs played in public, on radio/tv, on the internet or copied onto physical products
• Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) - licenses use of recorded music on behalf of the record companies and performers
• Video Performance Limited (VPL) - deals with music video licensing when played in public or broadcasted on TV
• British Phonographic Industry (BPI) - promotes British music and fights copyright infringement.
• Ofcom - regulates TV, radio and digital on-demand media.

Some websites like YouTube may remove video content which breaks copyright laws or demonetizes the video for the owner of the video and redirect the advertising revenue to the rightful copyright owner. However, over 7 million internet users in the UK are still accessing copyright-infringing material, so the government is trying to enforce new laws to reduce this.

Music Piracy

Piracy has been a big problem for any digital content, as the internet makes it easy to distribute anonymously through websites such as Piratebay and through peer to peer file sharing applications. Approximately 7 million people in the UK still access or stream music that infringes on copyright. This has created a concern to try to control the circulation of music. The Digital Economies Act 2010 was an attempt at this. The act caused many internet service providers like Virgin Media to take a more active role in preventing copyright in the new Get It Right From a Genuine Site campaign, warning consumers who are pirating content. Artists have also been increasing product prices to make up for the losses due to piracy. However, music piracy has seen a steady decline due to the popularity of music streaming services like Spotify, who has seen a 7% increase in users since 2016. This indicates how people are more willing to pay for a music service, as more and more of the industry are promoting legal streaming.

Drill Music Videos

Drill music has proven to be a big problem for many people since it promotes violence, drugs and conflict between gangs. In response to this, the police have been performing 'stop and searches' on suspecting drill artists and asked YouTube to remove 90 drill rap videos that seemed too dangerous. YouTube reported to have taken down more than 30 videos in total in May 2018, but decided in July 2019, that they will no longer be taking down drill videos.



Sexualisation of Women in Music Videos

Ariana Grande in '7 Rings'

As Goodwin theorised, there is often referred to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. Many people see this as a major problem as it creates unrealistic role models for young women. An example of this is in Ariana Grande's '7 rings' music video, where she is presented in a dress with lots of exposed skin, lying across a table in a sexualised manner. To try and limit this sexualised content that the younger audiences may see, YouTube has implemented age restrictions for age-appropriate content. However, this isn't very effective as there is no verification required when inputting a birthday, so many children have been able to bypass this system.

BBFC
All music videos by artists signed to Sony Music UK that are unsuitable for children under 12 will be classified with a BBFC age rating. Since my audience was from age "16-25 year olds", I decided to research the 15 age rating on BBFC. According to their website, this is what classifies a 15 rating:
• No imitable dangerous behaviour
• No endorsement of discrimination
• No promotion of drug use
• May use strong language
• Sexual nudity may be permitted but likely to be brief or presented in a comic context
• Sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail
• Any depiction of strong sexual threat and violence must be brief
• May be strong threat and horror
• Violence may be strong, but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury

YouTube and Vimeo
Since my content must be "suitable for broadcast on streaming sites such as YouTube", I decided to research YouTube and Vimeo policies and regulations. In order to protect users on YouTube and Vimeo, they have regulatory policies in place to control the content of the videos on their sites.
For YouTube, the guidelines are:
• No nudity/sexual content
• No harmful/dangerous content
• No hateful content
• No violent or graphic content
• No harassment/cyberbullying
• No scamming
• No threats
• No copyright infringement
• No intruding on people's privacy
• No impersonation


For Vimeo, the guidelines are:
• No harassment/hateful content
• No copyright infringement
• No nudity/sexual content
• No scamming
• No depiction of violent activity

Having researched the regulations of the music industry, it helped me choose my song appropriately so that it was appropriate for my "16-25-year-old" audience. In addition, I now know how to create a music video with appropriate content to be uploaded onto websites like YouTube and Vimeo, making sure to have no nudity, harmful content, violent content and copyright infringement. It helped me consider whether my pop song was suitable for radio streaming, as radio often stream songs on the to charts.