Songwriters and session musicians are poised to benefit from improved compensation terms, following a recent agreement between the music industry and the UK government.
In a significant shift, songwriters will now receive daily payments of £75, in addition to coverage for travel and food expenses, for each session or songwriting camp they attend. This contrasts with previous arrangements, where songwriters often bore these costs and were compensated only upon a song’s release.
The issue gained prominence after Raye’s remarks at the 2023 Ivor Novello Awards, where she criticized record labels for expecting songwriters to “work for free,” deeming it “an insult.”
The new agreement also entails a pay increase of up to 40% for session musicians participating in recording sessions.
For pop musicians, standard fees will rise from £130 to £182. Orchestral musicians will see a 15% increase, with principal violinists, for instance, receiving £106.90, up from £92.96.
Creative Industries Minister Sir Chris Bryant announced the changes, expressing his frustration with musicians receiving “paltry amounts of money” for creating songs that “everybody loves dancing to around their kitchen.”
The measures resulted from the government’s Creator Remuneration Working Group (CRWG), established in 2024 to address income disparities for musicians in the streaming era.
Addressing the low royalties many artists receive from streaming services, Sir Chris stated, “I can’t transform the worldwide streaming situation, but what I can do is make sure that we in the UK have the best deal for artists possible.”
The new framework has been agreed upon by the three major record labels, with backing from the Ivors Academy for songwriters and the Association of Independent Music.
Musicians who signed recording contracts before 2000, prior to the streaming era, will also have the opportunity to renegotiate their contracts for higher pay rates.
Additionally, debts to their record labels will be written off (an initiative begun by Sony Music in 2021), and support will be provided to add “missing” songs to streaming platforms.
Sir Chris estimates that these changes will deliver “tens of millions of pounds” to musicians by 2030.
However, the Musicians Union and the Council of Music Makers have expressed “disappointment” that the package does not more effectively address “the fundamental problems with music streaming economics.”
These organizations are advocating for a minimum royalty rate for all artists and a change to copyright law allowing artists and songwriters to reclaim the rights to their songs after a specified period.
Of the new changes, the new pay deal for songwriters is possibly the most impactful.
Before streaming, songwriters would get paid any time a CD or vinyl record was sold. Today, they get a fraction of the £0.003 royalty that’s generated every time a song is played on streaming services.
A 2024 report by consulting firm Midia Research suggested that only 10% of working songwriters earned more than $30,000 (£22,000) per year.
More than half earned less than $1,000 (£741), with most citing the “lack of meaningful streaming income” as their primary problem.
Their cause was taken up by people like Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus, who said the industry was “cheating songwriters” with a payment system that was “dysfunctional at best”.
“It’s been a pretty dire existence up to this point,” says Ines Dunn, who has written for artists including Mimi Webb, Maisie Peters and Holly Humberstone.
“To even attend a session, you have to pay for your trains, you have to pay for your lunches. So everyone, before they even reach the studio, is already out of pocket.”
She describes the new payments as “a small step in a marathon” .
“I think it’s important to state this doesn’t solve problems in the long term,” she adds. “This isn’t the extent of what songwriters deserve, but it is a really vital step in ensuring people can just show up and do their job.
“There’s so many writers who are Uber drivers or have part-time jobs just to stay afloat. There are songwriters who can’t afford childcare – and these [payments] can help with that, even if that’s all they spend it on.
“I just want there to be a day where songwriters can be songwriters, and that’s enough.”
The payments help to address a “huge power imbalance” in the music industry, adds Simon Barber, associate professor of songwriting at Birmingham City University and co-host of the Sodajerker On Songwriting podcast.
“If you think about the fact that songwriters are essentially the fount of new material for these massive corporations, to ask for expenses like travel and meals to be covered, is a very basic requirement that you would expect most industries to participate in.
“So I think it’s a really positive step forward. And I think it probably encourages songwriters from more diverse backgrounds, who don’t necessarily have the means to work for free, to participate more.”
The BBC understands that two of the three major labels – Warner Music and Universal – have agreed to introduce the “per diem” payments for writers.
Crucially, the money will not be paid by the artist hosting the session, but by the labels themselves.
The third major, Sony Music, has established a £100,000 fund, managed by The Ivors Academy, to cover per diems. The fund will also provide “broader support” to writers “to help increase access and opportunities across the music industry”.
The changes come after MPs called for a “complete reset” of the streaming market to make sure artists got a “fair share” of the streaming market – which now generates more than £1 billion annually for the UK music industry.
The BPI, which represents the British Music Industry said the new principles “will uniquely benefit British artists”.
“As we face unprecedented global competition as an industry, these changes will help secure our place as a world leader in music,” said chief strategy officer Sophie Sophie Jones.
The new framework would be reviewed after 12 months, the government told the BBC.
“If we find, in a year’s time, that this hasn’t really delivered an improvement to artists’ and musicians’ remuneration, then we always have the option of of going to legislate,” said Sir Chris Bryant.
The Creator Remuneration Working Group will continue to push for further changes – with a meeting in September to look at the issue of streaming pay for session musicians.
Such musicians, who play on records by artists like Harry Styles, Adele and Lewis Capaldi, receive royalties when those songs are played on radio and TV.
However, there are no equivalent royalties for digital streaming or on-demand radio services.
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