New #PayTheCreator campaign calls for respect for creators when it comes to pay
The Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA) is a collective of organisations – including ALCS – that exists to promote, protect and further the interests of creators through policy, advocacy and campaigning work. It’s now calling for prompt pay for creative freelancers with a new campaign, Pay the Creator.
A new campaign called Pay the Creator that calls for creators to be paid professionally and promptly launches on Thursday 17 March.
Creators underpin the foundation of the largest sector within the UK economy. In 2019, the creative industries contributed £115.9bn in Gross Value Added to the UK economy – that’s more than aerospace, automotive, life sciences and oil and gas sectors combined.
In a post-Brexit, post-pandemic world, we must nurture our assets to ensure we retain our world-leading economic and cultural vibrancy.
A third of people working in the creative industries are freelancers – in some sections of the industry this proportion reaches 70 per cent – yet their needs are repeatedly ignored when policy, economic and support decisions are being made.
According to the CRA, a lack of professional and prompt payment makes this vital industry unnecessarily fragile, both in the short and the long-term. It argues that in a post-Brexit, post-pandemic world, we must nurture our assets to ensure we retain our world-leading economic and cultural vibrancy.
The CRA is working to ensure that all creators are:
- Paid for the work they do, and the rights they grant, on time and reflecting their contributions, skills and worth
- Recognised for the contribution they make to the creative industries, the UK’s economy, and our wellbeing
- At the heart of the government’s and the creative industries’ policy and decision-making processes
What you can do
As a creator, you can share the #PayTheCreator hashtag on your social media feeds, and use it to highlight the best and the worst in pay and contract practices. You can also download the Pay the Creator logo to use on your own website and email signature, linking to the Pay the Creator CRA page. Pledge your support to the Pay the Creator campaign.
Nicola Solomon, CEO Society of Authors and CRA Chair, said: “It is always unacceptable to expect creators to receive ‘exposure’ or ‘experience’ in place of payments, but this has become especially prevalent throughout the pandemic. It is also unacceptable to take creators’ rights without fair payment. Our creative freelancers are a key cornerstone of our economy, providing important creativity, knowledge, and expertise. Without them our books, films, magazines, television, film, theatre and music venues would be empty, devoid of content. They have been dismissed far too long as irrelevant and unimportant to those who use their services and work, as well as to policy decision makers. This must stop…”
For more information, visit www.creatorsrightsalliance.org
#PayTheCreator
