New and extended rights for performers have been introduced into UK copyright law as a result of EC Directives. It is widely supposed that they will make performers better off. In this article we attempt to test that assumption by analysing these changes with the focus on the music industry. We discuss the role of collecting societies in implementing these rights, and speculate on the costs of collection, the potential value of the rights and who will pay for them. Evidence is presented for the UK with references to Denmark and Sweden. We conclude that it is not obvious that all performers will be better off as a result.
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