Music Streaming: Label-led Principles

Chris Curtis Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

Oh dear, the hon. Gentleman is worse than me. [Interruption.] Oh yes he is—and it’s not even panto season yet! [Interruption.] He has a very moderate tie, though.

It is important that we have proper evaluation. We are in the process of working out precisely how we will do that. I have said to the group that we will convene in a year’s time. By then, we will have evaluated fully whether this has really worked. I am honestly very confident that it will deliver the goods. The hon. Gentleman says that artists are not necessarily doing it for the money. I went to see Alison Moyet at Kew Gardens a couple of weeks ago. She was absolutely magnificent. At the beginning of her set, she said, “I’m not necessarily going to play what everybody wants me to play, because this isn’t karaoke. I’m an artist and a musician, not just a celebrity.” That balance is really important for lots of artists and musicians. They need to earn a living, but they are also artists who have their own conditions and they need to be able to pursue what lies in their heart.

[Chris Curtis (Milton Keynes North) (Lab)]

I start by—[Interruption.] Oh, that is a bright tie, Minister. I start by echoing earlier comments thanking the former Member for Cardiff West, the unions and the Ivors Academy for their important campaigning on this issue, and I congratulate the Minister for getting this important deal over the line. The music industry has long suffered with issues of transparency, and I have no doubt that the Minister will want to ensure that these announcements make a real-world difference. Will he therefore tell us a little more about the independent scrutiny that will be in place to ensure that these new measures are implemented, and will he say whether there is a means of auditing what benefit music makers will see from these changes?

[Chris Bryant]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We need to ensure that the new measures are implemented. As I say, I do not want to undermine confidence in that, because I do not want to give anybody a get-out clause for not implementing them. We will be working over the next few weeks with both the BPI and the Association of Independent Music on putting together a proper evaluation process over the next year, and I hope I will be making a statement in a year’s time—although obviously that will not be up to me—on precisely how it has worked out. As I said earlier, I reckon this is worth several tens of millions of pounds of extra investment in the British music industry, and I think we will see that it has delivered.

Just returning to the issue of my tie, Madam Deputy Speaker: it is a Day of the Dead tie by Van Buck.