Research and analysis

Funding, authorship, and acknowledgments

Published 23 September 2021

© Crown copyright 2021

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/buyout-contracts-in-the-uk-audio-visual-commissioning-sector/funding-authorship-and-acknowledgments

This report was delivered by Dr Kenny Barr, Dr Hyojung Sun, Professor David Hesmondhalgh, and Dr Richard Osborne, on behalf of the IPO.

Funding, authorship and acknowledgements

In 2020, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) commissioned research on music creators’ earnings, led by Dr Hyojung Sun at the University of Ulster as Principal Investigator (PI), with Professor David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds) and Dr Richard Osborne (Middlesex University) as Co-Investigators. As the scope of the project grew in size in response to increasing public and industry interest in this issue, further funding essential to the completion of the project was provided to the University of Leeds, with Hesmondhalgh as Principal Investigator, by Research England’s Quality-Related Research Strategic Priorities Funding (QR SPF) from January to March 2021 and by the IPO from April to July 2021. These extra funds allowed for employment of a Research Fellow, Dr Kenny Barr (now at the University of Glasgow) at the University of Leeds from January to June 2021. Support for some of the time of two of the researchers came from DigIT, the ESRC Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Hesmondhalgh) and the AHRC Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (Sun).

This research has generated two reports: the present one, with Barr as lead author, and a longer co-authored report on Music creators’ earnings in the digital era, published in parallel with this report. Readers of this report are referred to the glossary provided at the beginning of that longer report for explanations of terms and abbreviations.

The overall aim of the research that generated both reports was to collate and provide objective evidence to facilitate constructive and informed debate about music creators’ earnings. In this, the Research Team were able to draw upon input and advice from an Industry Steering Group consisting of representatives of the following organisations: The Association of Independent Music (AIM), British Phonographic Industry Ltd. (BPI), The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), The Ivors Academy, The Musicians’ Union (MU), The Music Publishers’ Association (MPA), and PRS for Music [footnote 1].

  1. Hasan Bakshi of the AHRC Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) also attended meetings as an observer. ↩

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