The Lack of Value in the Value Gap

In the debates over the scope of copyright safe harbor regimes, music industry rights holders have argued that reforms are necessary to address what they describe as a value gap between payments made to performing artists from subscription streaming services(e.g., Spotify), against payments made to performing artists from advertising supported streaming services(e.g. YouTube). The premises of the value gap argument are that Youtube isn’t paying enough and that somehow the existence of safe harbors is the reason for this underpayment. The premises are contradicted by the evidence, which shows that subscription services and advertising services respond to different types of listeners, listening to different types of music. YouTube complements subscription service, and pays out significant revenue to musicians. Debates on copyright reform are important -- and like all important issues they should be conducted based on empirical inquiries, and not on political slogans such as a “value gap” that doesn’t exist.