Tom Gray Profile picture
Chair of @IvorsAcademy. Member of Gomez, MU, Labour & PRS Council. Director of UK Music. #BrokenRecord founder. A working songwriter and composer (just about).
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Dec 1, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read
Today is the last day to get in touch with your MP and ask them to support the #BrennanBill.

This Bill is the result of one of the most extensive select committee inquiries ever held.

The elements it brings in were recommended by multiple lawyers, academics and executives. A form of Equitable Remuneration has been part of the international conversation around streaming for over a decade. This is nothing new or unconsidered.

Contract limits already exist in places like the USA and the Netherlands.

The right to see our own data is obvious.
Jun 7, 2021 13 tweets 42 min read
Jul 2, 2020 8 tweets 2 min read
Here’s a thought about @PaulMcCartney and his beat combo.

Between 1965 and ‘69, many people assert that some of the greatest records ever produced were made by The Beatles

They never played a single live show in that period.

Let’s look at if Rubber Soul was released today. In 1965, 1.8 million copies sold in the USA. 11 songs. That’s 19.8 million confirmed song sales. That’s about £80k for Parlophone in streaming terms and £16k for The Beatles.

Let’s be fairer, say everyone averaged listening 20 times that year.

So that’s £1.6 million and £320k
Jun 14, 2020 54 tweets 23 min read
OH MY GOD. The deals between the majors and the streaming services.

The thread many of you requested. It gets a bit sticky, tricky and puzzling, but that’s the point. The themes of this story: a lack of transparency and accountability for artists and a system that disdains the relationship between artists and their fans.

What makes telling this so hard is these deals are hidden behind NDAs for “reasons of commercial confidentiality”.
Apr 12, 2020 27 tweets 8 min read
Why the music industry HAS to change and why it has to change now. A thread. Stick with it! I hope it’s not wrong of me to assume that most people don’t know or fully understand how musicians get paid. Truth is, I know an awful lot of musicians that don’t understand how they get paid.
Mar 21, 2020 23 tweets 11 min read
Let’s start from the top. The music business is like the finance industry 20 years ago. Unregulated by governments who misunderstand how it works. When I direct my anger at ‘the IFPI’, I’m talking about the Major Labels: @UMG, @sonymusic & @warnermusic. They have been able to run the market based on their terms. They own more than two thirds of ALL recorded music. You may ask, but *how* have competition authorities allowed this to happen? Sadly the answer is: fuck knows.