| Universal IS wiping unrecouped balances for heritage artists, say MBW sources |  | Earlier today, MBW raised a big question: With both Sony and now Warner confirming they are wiping unrecouped balances for thousands of heritage artists and songwriters, is a similar announcement coming from the world's biggest music rights company – Universal Music Group?
If you've read MBW for some time, you'll hopefully know that we have very good, very senior sources in the global music business.
And here's what our very good, very senior sources are telling us today: yes, categorically, Universal is introducing a policy that will see unrecouped balances disregarded for eligible catalog songwriters and artists on its books.
This policy, we're told, will be publicly confirmed by UMG in detail in the next couple of months, likely as part of a wider update on its Environment Social Governance (ESG) practices.
The significance of this news cannot be underestimated in terms of the seismic transformation of the music industry in the modern age.
Ever since streaming began to take off, many artists and songwriters have complained that they see low (or sometimes even no) regular royalties from major rightsholders – as these artists/songwriters are still paying off advance checks they
accepted decades ago.
With Warner's announcement today, and Universal's upcoming announcement (which both follow Sony Music Group's historic announcement last year), this situation is largely, finally being consigned to history.... (MBW) |
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