Online Music and the Quest for Fairness: The Evolution of Creators’ Rights in the EU Data Economy

This timely book delivers a compelling exploration of how European copyright law shapes the experiences of music creators today. Blending legal analysis with empirical evidence from across the EU, Giuseppe Mazziotti considers what fairness means for those who compose, perform and produce music in a platform- and algorithm-driven digital economy.

Drawing on Horizon Europe’s Fair MusE project, the book reveals how recent EU reforms seek to rebalance power, improve transparency and foster fairer remuneration in markets dominated by streaming and social media platforms. Mazziotti exposes both meaningful progress and enduring inequalities, uncovering how data infrastructures determine who gets paid and who does not. Focusing on real-world market dynamics to address remuneration and power relations within the music industry, the book highlights that without transparent and reliable data governance, fairness in the digital music economy will remain out of reach.

Online Music and the Quest for Fairness original analysis is greatly beneficial to legal scholars, researchers and practitioners in intellectual property law, EU law and digital regulation. Its policy-oriented conclusions and proposals will also be of vital importance for stakeholders in the technology and creative industries, as well as policymakers and regulators engaged in platform governance, remuneration and data policy.