Holden working with Turnbull to better streaming royalties

Former ‘70s pop star Mark Holden, who now works as a lawyer in Melbourne, is in discussions with Federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull on a solution to better online streaming in Australia.

Speaking to 891 ABC Adelaide, Holden said he hopes to gain a better return for rights holders and is working with Turnbull, industry associations and artists.

"The song Happy by Pharell Williams was streamed 43 million times on Pandora, the songwriters share on that, for the biggest global hit of last year [was] $2,700," Holden said.

Holden, who rose to success in the ‘70s with his track I Wanna Make You My Lady, co-penned Vanessa Amorosi’s hit singles Shine and Absolutely Everybody, as well as The Temptations’ Lady Soul and Look What You Started. During the interview Holden revealed his return for one million plays of Absolutely Everybody was $40.50 following the removal of administration fees of $109.50.

During Holden's time as judge on Australian Idol he inked contestant Joel Turner and his band The Modern Day Poets to a management and label deal with his Dream Dealers imprint, something he said he wouldn't do again - "How can I invest in music now when there is literally a zero repayment for me?"

Speaking to TMN, Holden said: "The split between song and record in the digital age being roughly 1:9 - in favour of the record is completely out of date in the digital age. It made some sense when the records were petroleum bi-products that were wrapped in a cardboard sleeve and shipped in cars and plains and trains but in the digital age that has all disappeared. It makes no sense to have the split between song and record be anything other than 50:50."

Holden told TMN he is also in talks with APRA AMCOS CEO Brett Cottle and feels there is a need to "radically reinvent copyright."

"This generation equates copyright with a right to copy. We have no power to enforce our intellectual property rights in the digital domain - we have lost that right," Holden told TMN. "So copyright is out of date. Our creations are consumed as data by the public. The public pay the ISPs and Mobile phone companies for the data they use but our creations are not paid for. The ISPs get paid for our data but we do not."

As a lawyer practicing commercial and copyright law Holden has long been concerned with the divvying up of royalty payments. He was one of 630 Australians to respond to Attorney-General George Brandis and Turnbull’s Online Copyright Infringement Discussion Paper. In his submission he said: “ Piracy is fast becoming unnecessary for the consumer - they can get the legal product for free. The problem has already evolved technologically beyond litigation being a relevant tool such that it is no longer an issue of legality but one of equity. Reward for effort."

Holden said a portion of each internet broadband mobile bill should be pooled in a society like APRA and divided amongst the creators that opt in to that society.

"A new kind of right would need to be created - what I call a usufructuary right. Like when water is used to make electricity," Holden told TMN. "At the end the water is unchanged but in the process electricity is generated. Its the same with our creations - they can be used digitally without changing them [i.e. protecting moral rights] and in return the users pay a part of their data use charge to the new Digital Dividend Society which is passed on to the creators."