Welsh musicians are holding a strike between December the 19th and the 21st by refusing BBC Radio Cymru to play tracks composed or published by members of Y Gynghrair. The strike is in protest of the discrepancy in royalty rates between BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. Y Gynghrair is claiming that tracks played on BBC Radio Wales earn as much as thirty five times more royalties than on BBC Radio Cyrmu. However, the figures don’t actually support this statement.
Whilst it is true that plays on BBC Radio 1, for example, would earn almost thirty five times more than a track played on BBC Radio Cymru, the same simply can’t be said when talking about BBC Radio Wales. Plays on BBC Radio Wales do earn more royalties, but at a far more modest rate than suggested by the protest; 82 pence per minute versus BBC Radio Cymru’s 55 pence per minute.
What’s more, these royalty rates are apparently based on listener reach, and are therefore not an indication of bias for or against any one party, but are simply indicative of the popularity of each radio station.
For more information about the protest, visit Y Gynghrair.
For more information about royalty rates, visit PRS For Music.
