Hi, my name is Dusty Kelly. I'm a secretary and business agent for the Vancouver Musicians' Association. We represent about 1,951 musicians here in Vancouver, and we're part of the Canadian Federation of Musicians, which represents about 17,000 professional musicians across Canada.
To make a living as a musician is getting harder and harder, and part of that results from digital theft and exploitation of works through file-sharing, social media, etc. While the Internet giants are reaping billions of dollars, musicians, whose works are being shared constantly on those streams, don't see any piece of that money. The royalty structures need an overhaul to accommodate how electronic streaming revenues are derived and what portion of these revenues would flow back to the musicians that we represent. Intellectual property needs to be protected, and individuals need to be fairly compensated for their creations.
I think the promotion of the economics of creativity is really important as well. So much work has been done on the film and television end of things about understanding the notion that exploiting work for free has an impact on the economics of everybody involved. This work needs to start happening for the musicians and performers as well.
We should also recognize the difference in types of recordings. Technology change is moving rapidly, and whereas once we had compact discs, we now have media sticks or cloud-based technologies. We'd like to see you do something about protecting how performances and musicians' works are going through those mediums, and how they can get a revenue stream from that, so that they can continue to work and make a living as artists.
Thanks.