BASCA chairman Simon Darlow's opening speech at the Ivor Novello Awards

22 May 2015 - Press release

We [BASCA] exist to promote the creators’ voice and help maintain the value of their work through lobbying, education, community and celebration.

Its fantastic that, for 60 years we have been able to honour the nominees and winners who have contributed so much to a culture and economy and have given so much pleasure to so many with their music.

These awards are always special to those who receive them as they are judged by their peers, who clearly know how much dedication and hard work go into making music that touches our lives.

BASCA is hugely grateful to all the judges this year who gave so generously of their time and expertise. The song or composition is the seed craft of a whole industry which depends on the many talented people in this room, to create something new out of thin air.

As anyone who creates will understand, to get it right takes time and a lot of faith. We are all well aware that streaming is becoming the dominant means of listening to music, as ownership dwindles. But streaming is not yet proven that it can provide viable income for future generations of songwriters and composers.

This is largely because some companies exploit safe harbour legislation to avoid paying a fair value for music and thereby compete unfairly with those that do. For those of you here today whose search engines provide links to software that enable people to steal songs from a service that is only licensed to stream, you are undermining the value of our music.

For any of you whose company maintains that it has to pay only if it monitises our works, you too are undermining the value of our music. For any others out there who remain unlicensed, and rely on notice and takedown, you are accessories to the theft of our music. All of you are making it virtually impossible for licenced businesses to thrive and grow. All of you are helping to kill songwriting and composition. If you value your future, please help us have a future by respecting the value of our work.

Writers, publishers and legitimate streaming services must work together to build a secure future for us all. It would be a sad world indeed if there was no incentive to make new music. BASCA will continue to campaign vigorously and work with PRS for our joint creative voice programme to address these vital issues. We are proud of our British music heritage and long may it thrive.