EU official seeks 95-year royalty terms for musicians

Singers musicians should earn royalty fees for 95 years -- almost double the current 50-year limit, an EU official said on Thursday as he promised to draft new copyright protection rules.

"If nothing is done, thousands of European performers who recorded in the late 1950s and 1960s will lose all of their airplay royalties over the next 10 years," said EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, the union's internal market chief. "These royalties are often their sole pension."

People living longer and 50 years of copyright protection no longer give lifetime income to artists who recorded hits in their late teens or early twenties, he said.

Most European composers and lyricists currently receive lifetime copyright protection, which is passed on to their descendants for another 70 years. The new EU rules would not change that.

But the change would mean that performers would get the same 95-year copyright period enjoyed by their US counterparts.

The extension would not benefit only stars such as French crooner Charles Aznavour or British pop star Cliff Richard, McCreevy said. Session musicians who played on a recording would also be able to draw on a new fund.

McCreevy the new rules should not increase consumer prices because the price of records out of copyright is often the same as -- or higher than -- that of newly released discs.

The EU executive also wants to look again at reforming copyright levies charged on blank discs, data storage and music and video players to compensate artists and copyright holders for legal copying when listeners burn an extra version of an album.