Transparency is one of the issues that have tantalized the music industry; probably it is the most deceptive issue. To be more precise, the lack of transparency has affected the industry in negative manner. The fact is the modern music industry which is a business of distribution and recording of sounds has never been that much transparent. There are many stories around telling about artists receiving non-cash payments in place of regular royalty checks, and there are also stories about mailbox money given to the writers of the song without explanation about the exact amount. The industry might have done better during the twentieth century but there have been cases of exploitation of talent. This is not applicable in so many cases or we cannot say that it is 100% true, but yes, music artists have to face such challenges and issues.
Music industry has its own place. The record and publishing houses are now not as much beneficial as they were before. The technological growth has helped many artists to reach to global audience through the internet. It has also increased the competition for the listener’s time. The digital industry of music requires a higher level of transparency because exposure is the main aspect and royalties are the result of the accrual of micropayments.
There are three categories of transparency associated with the music industry: Structural Transparency, Repertoire Transparency and Rate and Revenue Transparency.
Structural Transparency: The first main category of transparency of the music industry, it is described as how various services function and remunerate artists. To learn more about Structural transparency, we can look at digital aggregator services. While the accurate offerings of aggregators vary among companies and among various membership levels within a given aggregator, these services generally work as an intermediary between individual artists, or those whose record labels do not offer distribution services, and digital music distribution platforms including streaming services.
The lack of structural transparency does not have equal danger as the lack of other two areas of transparency, but it does produce some confusion, specifically for individual artists and writers. The main concern is the arrangement of the service dedicated to providing independent music creators with tools to assist with a wide range of promotional activities like brand association and social media engagement.
Rate and Revenue Transparency: It is described as how the money is divided, who gets paid what and why, and in the times of micropayments that can come from up to 700000 different revenue sources, it is very vital to be maintained at a very high level.
The royalty rate is always decided through direct negotiation between the holder of the Music Rights Crowdfunding Platforms and the distribution service or in cases where such a framework exists, through a government rate-setting process in both cases transparency is needed.
Repertoire transparency: Repertoire transparency deals with the accuracy and availability of information regarding rights to work in the music industry. One would believe that the time which classified government document can be accessed easily through the internet to find out who owns a musical work or sound recording should be easy. In this case, however, one would fall victim to the old adage about assumptions, as in many cases finding this information is difficult or even impossible.
If you are an artist and want a reputed and transparent platform to publish your music and get funding without any issue, then choose platforms like Zeptagram. You can publish your Music Rights Trading Platforms and share your success and work with your fans too. This is how you can make the most of your work.
