How Working Musicians (Finally) Became a Matter of Mainstream Political Interest

The pay and working conditions of musicians have, until recently, very rarely been an issue of explicit public concern—and interest on the part of politicians and policy-makers has been even more unusual. Our chapter recounts how in the UK growing awareness of—and solidarity with—the working conditions of musicians has recently fed an unprecedented degree of political scrutiny of the music industries. We explain the process by which a UK parliamentary inquiry into The Economics of Music Streaming was launched in 2020 by the Committee overseeing the national government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) leading to a substantial report that was surprisingly critical of the music industries. The earnings and well-being of musicians in the age of streaming were central concerns and this political scrutiny became the object of significant media coverage and public debate, internationally as well as in the UK. In addition, a substantial body of research on these and related topics was commissioned by UK government agencies, both before the launch of the Inquiry and as part of the UK government’s mandatory response to it.

As two academics who produced some of the government-commissioned research informing this political scrutiny, we think the politics of these developments are worth analysing. The events we recount illuminate the political forces aligned on different sides of struggles over cultural labour justice—in particular tensions between on the one hand corporate rights-owners and digital platforms and, on the other, less well-resourced “creator” organisations and activist groups. Also the research commissioned as part of the developments summarised here has produced interesting findings, which we believe will be of interest and value to critical researchers of the music industries. Finally, these events represent a fascinating case study of the increasing prominence of questions of cultural labour (and musical labour) justice in public debate.