Managers urge artists to sign up to rights charter.

Music Managers Forum launches charter to represent artists' rights

Artist managers are stepping up the fight to protect their acts' rights in the face of what they see as artists' views being constantly overlooked or ignored.

The Music Managers Forum is urging artists to sign up to a newly- launched artist charter, which was agreed at an MMF-organised meeting last Tuesday attended by more than 100 managers and artists. The charter has been established under what is billed as a featured artistes' coalition and will be formally launched at In The City.

MMF CEO Jon Webster says, "We are launching an organisation that's going to represent featured artists because we do feel they are perpetually overlooked at the moment. We are asking artists to give their support to sign up to this charter."

The charter is calling for what it describes as "fair play in the digital age" for artists and says all artists should be able to control their own destinies. Its key points are that:

artists should always retain ultimate ownership of their music

all agreements should be conducted in a fair and transparent manner