Musicians will be entitled to royalties from their performances for 95 years under new proposals outlined by European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.
Currently, performers only enjoy a 50-year copyright, while the copyright for the composer of a song or piece of music extends to 70 years after their death. Session musicians who start work in their late teens might therefore lose the right to their royalties just at the point when they need a retirement fund in their 70s.
European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy
Mr McCreevy said performing artists should no longer be the "poor cousins" of the music business.
The Internal Market Commissioner said he strongly believed that Europe's performers have a moral right to control the use of their work and earn a living from their performances.
"It is the performer who gives life to the composition and while most of us have no idea who wrote our favourite song - we can usually name the performer," he said.
"I have not seen a convincing reason why a composer of music should benefit from a term of copyright which extends to the composer's life and 70 years beyond, while the performer should only enjoy 50 years, often not even covering his lifetime."
Mr McCreevy said he will bring forward a proposal by the summer to extend the term of protection for sound recordings to 95 years.
"If nothing is done, thousands of European performers who recorded in the late fifties and sixties will lose all of their airplay royalties over the next ten years.
"I am not talking about featured artists like Cliff Richard or Charles Aznavour. I am talking about the thousands of anonymous session musicians who contributed to sound recordings in the late fifties and sixties. They will no longer get airplay royalties from their recordings. But these royalties are often their sole pension," Mr McCreevy said.
He said the extension would benefit all artists, whether featured artists or session musicians.
Under the plan, record companies would set up a fund reserving at least 20 per cent of the income from the performance for session musicians for the extended copyright term.
"For featured artists, original advances may no longer be set off against royalties in the extended term. That means the artist would get all the royalties during the extended term," the Commissioner said.
A Commission survey shows that many European performers or singers start their career in their early 20s. Session musicians often start performing when they are 17, which means they could still be in their 70s when the 50-year protection ends.
They would then no longer receive any income from their sound recordings.
Mr McCreevy said his proposal should not have any negative impact on consumer prices.