The European Commission has adopted a proposal that aims to improve the social situation of musicians, taking into account that performers are increasingly outliving the existing 50 year period of protection for their performances. The proposal will extend protection for performers and sound recordings to 95 years, bringing the protection in line with that given to authors - 70 years after death. The proposal also contains certain accompanying measures, including a provision for 'use it or lose it' clauses in contracts between performers and record producers. Under a 'use it or lose it' clause, if a producer does not publish a record, which, but for the term extension, would be in the public domain, the rights in the fixation of the performance shall, upon request, revert to the performer and the rights in the record shall expire. A further purpose of the clause is to ensure that records which neither the producer nor the performers wish to exploit are not 'locked up.' Consequently, orphan records, for which neither the producer nor the performers can be identified or found, will benefit from the clause because such records will not be exploited by either the producer or the performer. Finally, in order to help session musicians, the proposal requires record companies to set up a fund into which they will have to pay 20% of their revenues earned during the extended period.
Read more at the European Union's portal web site, EUROPA, and at EUROPA’s thematic website, EU Single Market.