New York Times: Open the Music Industry's Black Box

David Byrne references BerkleeICE's Fair Music Report and calls for the music industry to open the "Black Box" and increase pay transparency and fair compensation. 

August 3, 2015

In an op-ed in the New York Times, David Byrne sheds light on the music industry's "Black Box," a virtual holding place where money often ends up when it can't be directly traced to a specific artist.

He cites multiple ways in which the current industry is broken: "One industry source told me that the major labels assigned the income they got from streaming services on a seemingly arbitrary basis to the artists in their catalog. . . The labels also get money from three other sources, all of which are hidden from artists: They get advances from the streaming services, catalog service payments for old songs and equity in the streaming services themselves."

Byrne references the BerkleeICE Rethink Music Fair Music Report for providing examples about how technology can lead to increased pay transparency, and fair compensation in the industry.  These ideas are "radical" and "disruptive," he says, and just what's needed so the "whole music industry, all of it, can flourish."

Read the full New York Times article.