The trio have been signed to House Anxiety since 2020 – they claim that their label was supposed to issue them royalty checks every six months, but they only received their first in October 2024. They also alleged this royalty statement had “vast sums” wrongly deducted, and failed to include £217,000 that House Anxiety had received in a licensing deal with a subsidiary of major label Sony.

In a statement for the BBC, the Bradford bassline stars said, “Like all other bands, we don’t look for litigation, but when faced with a label that won’t let us put our own music out ourselves for our fans and not pay us royalties owed from our own music, we felt we had no other option.” Their claim also explains that they can’t work out an accurate figure that they’re owed until they receive a full set of accounts but believe it will add up to £400,000 at least.

Jamie Hodgson, founder of House Anxiety, responded to the accusations against the label: “We totally refute these claims and welcome the opportunity to clarify these inaccuracies.” Speaking of the group and their successes, he said “As an artist-friendly independent label, we remain hugely proud of every element of Full Wack No Breaks and all the hard work that went into its campaign, then stepping aside to allow BBCC to pursue their dreams of being a major label artist. There will be no further comment at this time.”

The northern MC’s rose to prominence in the 2020s. Their full-length releases Full Wack No Breaks and Disrespectful, both distributed through House Anxiety, were met with critical acclaim, with their bassline and garage revival beats, grimey flows and rowdy, humorous lyrics sticking out in an underground scene more used to stone-faced seriousness.

They had to stick to their guns to see if their up-tempo regional sound could catch a bigger crowd. “There’d been other MCs from Bradford that’d tried, and it just hadn’t worked for them,” Gareth “GK” Kelly told The Rolling Stone. “When we started doing it, I was saying to Kane, ‘[Listeners] don’t want this.’ And he was like, ‘No, they do. We just gotta stick with it.’”

Their breakthrough track, “450”, reached the official UK Singles chart, and their mixtape Disrespectful hit number two on the UK Album chart in 2022, under the licensing deal with Sony’s Relentless Label.

The group has dropped new music independently, an EP in June and a few singles more recently, but these have since been removed from streaming platforms and Youtube as a breach of contract with their label. The crew shared a headline on their Instagram publicising their dispute, saying “Hopefully this clears up a few things for a lot of people. We need our fans support now more than ever!”

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A post shared by BBCC Bad Boy Chiller Crew (@badboychillercrew)

Four Tet, featured, made headlines recently after his music was removed from streaming services over a royalty dispute, Brennan believes that Keiran Hebden (more popularly known by his stage name Four Tet) was very much in the right on his opposition to the lack of payment. In an article written for the times, Brennan states that record labels are “Relying on an ancient pre-streaming contract” and that it “doesn’t pay you what you should”.

My article in The Times – ‘Let’s set record straight and pay musicians their due’ #FixStreaming #BrokenRecord pic.twitter.com/etGcGSUp6A

— Kevin Brennan MP (@KevinBrennanMP) December 4, 2021

Since Brennan’s bill had its second reading on 3^rd December, nothing notable has come out of parliament. But the bill has rallied support from a significant portion of the industry. Horace Trubridge, General Secretary of the Musicians’ Union says, “We’re immensely grateful to Kevin Brennan and all the MPs, musicians, songwriters, composers, session players and featured artists who have supported the call to fix streaming” Adding, “It’s by no means the end of the Fix Streaming campaign… We will continue to put pressure on the Government and music industry to make the streaming system fairer and put the value of music back where it belongs – in our members’ hands.”.   Over 20,000 musicians have gotten involved with the #FixStreaming and #BrokenRecord campaigns, including Four Tet, Caribou, Adele, Rebecca Ferguson, and many others. While this, so far, doesn’t seem to have progressed; #BrokenRecord campaigner (who clearly knows his way around the parliamentary system) set the record -pardon the pun- straight by saying that “the vote goes to the back of the debating queue.” Meaning it might be a while until any major changes are made.

If you’re confused by what’s happened in Parliament. They voted on closure, they kept it open, which means the vote goes to the back of the debating queue. They’ll try to move for a vote soon, but the govt will push it out. So debate will go to 2.30pm but won’t pass. — Tom Gray #BrokenRecord (@MrTomGray) December 3, 2021

Graham Davies, CEO of The Ivors Academy (a professional association for music writers in Europe), adds “Today’s debate of the Brennan Bill is a landmark moment on the path to the inevitable modernisation of the music industry. The Government accepted that reform must take place to level-up payments for music makers. It is not a matter of if this reform happens but how.”

While progress is without a doubt being made, musicians should continue to campaign for the change in royalties from streaming services. See the full story, including explained segments of Brennan’s bill here.

In an interview published in Music Ally explaining the initiative, Gray said that “This is Covid-19. Live [income] has gone, PRO money is going to dry up shortly. Whatever anger you think there is in the industry now towards streaming, imagine it in six months’ time when the last of the money that’s in touring musicians’ bank accounts has gone, and when their PRS and PPL cheques go through the floor.” His movement prompted the government to start an inquiry into the issue.

In recent days, after a six-month enquiry into the effects of streaming into the music industry, some MPs have agreed that a reset of fees is necessary in order to ensure fairness for musicians. Several studies have shown that The MP Julian Knight has said that “While streaming has brought significant profits to the recorded music industry, the talent behind it – performers, songwriters and composers – are losing out.”

As reported by the BBC, other recommendations made by the study include:

• Musicians and songwriters should be allowed to reclaim the rights to their work from labels after a set period of time.
• Artists should be given the right to adjust their contract if their work is successful beyond the remuneration they received.
• The government should explore ways to ensure songwriters, who receive minimal streaming royalties, can have sustainable careers.
• Curators who make playlists on services like Spotify and Apple Music should adhere to a “code of conduct” to avoid bribes and favouritism.
• The government should require publishers and royalty societies to inform artists about how much money is flowing through the system.

Gray said he was “overjoyed” by the results of the inquiry, and said that “It feels like a massive vindication…they’ve really come to the same conclusions that we’ve been saying for a very long time.”

The campaign is run by the Musician’s Union and  Music Producers’ Guild, and argues that services such as Apple Music and Spotify should be legislated in a similar way to the radio, which would mean that artists receive fairer compensation for their work. Currently, the royalty rates for streaming service are decided by individual companies, and the artist in question either receives them directly or through their label. Radio royalties on the other hand are paid via a performing rights organisation, which guarantees a fair, consistent amount is paid.

As printed in NME, the campaign letter states that “The law has not kept up with the pace of technological change and, as a result, performers and songwriters do not enjoy the same protections as they do in radio… Today’s musicians receive very little income from their performances – most featured artists receive tiny fractions of a US cent per stream and session musicians receive nothing at all.” It goes on to say that the change in regulations “won’t cost the taxpayer a penny but will put more money in the pockets of UK taxpayers and raise revenues for public services like the NHS.”

The campaign received its most significant support yet this month as UN Agency The World Intellectual Property Organisation stated that “streaming remuneration likely should be considered consideration for a communication to the public right.” 

The campaign has been gathering steam for the past couple of months, and today has gained major names amongst its signatories. The most recent supporters include The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Emeli Sande and Jarvis Cocker, who join the ranks of Paul McCartney, Kate Bsh and others who signed at the campaign’s inception.

An extraordinary list becomes ever more extraordinary.

The signatories to the letter we’ve sent to @BorisJohnson today.

156 becomes 234. #BrokenRecord pic.twitter.com/HYnCkYuEWu

— Tom Gray #BrokenRecord (@MrTomGray) June 7, 2021

It is reported in The Guardian Newspaper that Committee chair, MP Julian Knight said that it would inquire as to whether, “The economics of streaming could in future limit the range of artists and music that we’re all able to enjoy today.” He went on to describe the way that music is being promoted for the rising UK talent as a “blunt tool to operate in a creative industry with emerging talent risking failing the first hurdle.”

Streaming has changed the music industry – but do the economics of music streaming work for everyone?

We’re launching an inquiry into the economics of music streaming today and want to hear from you.

Find out more and submit evidence here: https://t.co/tj3lUEVnZ2 pic.twitter.com/7fov9s99of

— Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (@CommonsDCMS) October 15, 2020

The investigation has been launched after the, ‘Keep Music Alive’ campaign was founded by the Musician’s union and Ivors Academy due to insufficient royalties given to creatives and performers in the music industry. The Daily Mail reported that Chief Executive of the Ivors Academy, Graham Davies stated,

“On behalf of all music creators we are delighted that Government will investigate the streaming market so it can work for all parts of the music industry. Most creators cannot make a living from streaming, it simply does not pay enough and millions of pounds each year is not properly allocated due to poor data. Following our campaigning with the Musicians’ Union, performers and creators to Fix Streaming this is an opportunity to create a transparent, fair and equitable approach.”

According to the Ivors Academy, noted by the Daily Mail, the UK brings accumulates over £1 billion a year in revenue and bringing in over 114 billion pounds in revenue for music streams in the last year. Companies such as Spotify pay as littles as £0.002 and 0.0038 per stream. Apple music pays £0.0059.

MP’s are requesting written documents from industry professionals from experts with the music sector, music labels, streaming platforms and artists themselves to address the business tools being used to promote the music and the long term affect these could have on the industry without changes being pursued.

Deezer, a French streaming company is currently the only leading streaming platform which uses a user centric payment system (UCPS) which ensures subscriber’s that revenues go direct to the artists. However, this is a growing platform, which is not currently a dominant feature in the way to download music.

Alexander Holland from Music Ally, a glowing streaming platform told The Guardian, “This can only happen in the context of agreement with our label partners. We cannot unilaterally introduce UCPS.”

The piracy of digital music has spiked since lockdown from the coronavirus in the spring and the government is keen to look at the consequential effect this could have long term for the industry. It will be looking at the EU copyright opposed to the UK equivalent to see if changes can be made to support the industry in these challenging times to protect the industries future.