All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.
The new royalty attribution method recently deployed by Universal Music Group and streaming music platform Deezer seeks to make royalty calculation more fair. But the change is not universally applauded. Two digital distribution companies Believe and TuneCore, whose customers are mainly indie musicians, calls the system “reverse Robin Hood.” Continue Reading
Universal Music Group (UMG), Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, and Arista Music have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive. The heart of this confrontation is a branded section of the Internet Archive’s Great 78 Project, a streaming database of 400,000 streaming, downloadable, and shareable recordings. Click through for the whole story. Continue Reading
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has brought a lawsuit against Twitter, claiming the social outlet has failed to pay for music placed on its platform. The action seeks $250-million in damages, and compares Twitter’s alleged negligence with compliance practices in place on other social networks.
Continue Reading
One of the most flagrant issues in the quickly emerging field of artificial intelligence is how AI collides with copyright. This multifaceted issue is being taken up by the U.S. Congress. Today, the Judiciary Committee is presenting “Artificial Intelligence and… Continue Reading
In a Federal Register notice just published today, the Copyright Royalty Board announces cost-of-living increases in the statutory royalties to be paid by webcasters to SoundExchange for the public performance of sound recordings, which represent a ~9% increase for the… Continue Reading
According to a report yesterday in Billboard (here but may be behind a paywall), lawyers for Slacker Radio and its parent company LiveOne are arguing to a federal judge that last week’s $10 million judgment for unpaid music royalties to… Continue Reading
Royalty collection and distribution agency SoundExchange has won a judgment of $9,765,396, plus legal fees, from the Slacker Radio division of LiveOne (formerly LiveXLive) in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for unpaid music royalties and… Continue Reading
Almost certainly the highest cost line item for U.S. music-based online radio services is the royalty that such services pay for rights to the sound recordings they play, with those rates set every five years in a tribunal conducted by… Continue Reading
Before this year, no music recording has ever resided in the public domain under U.S. federal copyright law. As of January 1 the situation has changed: Any recording made before 1923 is in the public domain now, and can be freely used. Not much practical application for podcasters, admittedly. But 400,000 records released to free use is a blockbuster milestone in music copyright, and a fascinating trove. Click through for collections that anyone can explore. Continue Reading
The U.S. recorded music industry is projected to exceed a 48-year revenue record set in 1999, according to RAIN’s examination of reports from the RIAA. The historical revenue high point was set in 1999 at $14.6-billion in recorded music revenue. Based on a persistent trend of H2 revenue exceeding H1 revenue, we project a new high water mark driven by streaming, the most lucrative channel for music labels. Click through for details and infographics. Continue Reading
In what could be a warning to all podcast networks, and a boost for audio transcription services, the National Association of the Deaf has sued SiriusXM for failing to provide transcripts of podcasts. The suit covers Stitcher and Pandora as well. This action harks back to a previous lawsuit against Netflix. Continue Reading
Copyright activists, comedians, and streaming services have roiled during the last week over new efforts to pay comedians for their ownership of written material in addition to royalties for recordings of comedy albums. Right administrator Spoken Giants is in the middle of it. Some comedy albums have been removed from some streaming services. Click to untangle the controversy. Continue Reading