Raye Calls for Better Songwriter Deals in Passionate BRIT Awards Acceptance Speech

variety.com:

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music It’s no surprise that British-Ghanaian R&B singer/songwriter Raye was the center of attention at last weekend’s BRIT Awards — she won a record six trophies at the British Grammy-equivalent ceremony, including Best Artist, Album of the Year and Song of the Year, and during her acceptance speeches made empowering statements like “I’m in control — I’m my own boss.” Yet obscured in all the headlines was the strong business statement she made on behalf of fellow songwriters, calling for them to receive a share of the master recording income of the songs on which they’re credited.

Multiple other participants receive such shares — “points on the master” — including artists, labels, producers and others, but not songwriters. “British music industry, please — I want to have a lovely, brief conversation about normalizing [business by] giving songwriters master royalty points,” she said, to cheers from Pinkpantheress and many others seen in the audience. “It means if the songs win big, the writers get to win too.

Please allow that to happen — please.” (The speech was first highlighted by the 100 Percenters nonprofit; see the full speech below.) A post shared by The 100 Percenters (@the100percenters_) The issue is a longstanding and forceful complaint from the songwriting community that has ramped up dramatically in recent months as streaming payment models are re-examined and updated amid the onset of AI.

Songwriters’ income and livelihood has been deeply impacted — many say short-changed — by the streaming economy, in which approximately 75% of the revenue generated by streams goes to artists and labels and the remainder to songwriters and publishers.