ABBA's Björn launches Credits Due campaign to fix music royalty issue

ABBA‘s Björn Ulvaeus has launched a new initiative called Credits Due, aiming to tackle issues surrounding music royalties and metadata.

The campaign comes from a collaboration between The Ivors Academy and The Music Rights Awareness Foundation (MRAF), of which Ulvaeus is a co-founder, and was unveiled at last night’s (September 21) 2021 Ivor Novello awards.

Credits Due has the aim of ensuring that “complete and accurate song metadata is attached to all recordings at the point of creation,” leading to all songwriters and contributors being accurately and fairly paid for their work.

Speaking of the initiative, Ulvaeus said: “I could think of no better event to launch the Credits Due initiative than at the Ivor Novello Awards. You could say that we celebrate all the great UK and Irish songwriters and composers by starting this open and inclusive collaboration with The Ivors Academy.

ABBA
ABBA’s avatars for their forthcoming live shows. Credit: ABBA Voyage.

“We want to raise awareness of and provide solutions to problems that are well-known and, to put it mildly, frustrating in the songwriting community. It’s very simple, music recordings must credit all involved and thus ensure that the right people get paid. People ask me why this isn’t the case already and I don’t know what to say.”

He added: “Today, in 2021, there’s really no excuse. If we achieve Credits Due it’s a win-win for the whole music industry. Thankfully, a lot of good work is underway and we very much look forward to further support from the industry in finally giving creators the financial recognition they deserve.”

Winners at last night’s Ivors included Harry StylesLianne La Havas and Dave. Nominated in the PRS for Music Most Performed Work category, Styles was awarded his first Ivor for ‘Adore You’, the second single from his Grammy-nominated album ‘Fine Line’.

The two other big Ivor accolades – Best Album and Best Contemporary Song – were awarded to Lianne La Havas and Dave and Fraser T Smith, respectively.

La Havas won in her category for her self-titled third studio album, released in July 2020. The category also saw the likes of Fontaines D.C.Tom Misch + Yussef Dayes, Pa Salieu and Laura Marling being nominated.