Copyrights & Legal

All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.

Spotify is reportedly offering hefty advances to land more direct licensing deals

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Spotify is reportedly offering advances to managers and indie artists as an incentive to consider direct licensing deals with the streaming service. Billboard reported that the company is offering up to several hundred thousand dollars in advances for managers that agree to license a particular number of tracks by indies directly to Spotify. On the platform, the managers and acts could then earn 50% of the revenue from those songs being streamed. Continue Reading →

Audiam opens its income-tracking tech to all clients

Posted on by Anna Washenko

Digital rights agency Audiam has updated its client portal with the technology it uses to find unclaimed money for copyright owners. The change means that artists, songwriters, publishers, and labels can see reports on every version of their works across services, including covers that they may not have known about. The technology is called Layla, and it offers a granular view for tracking income. Continue Reading →

PRS for Music announces record high collections and distributions for 2017

Posted on by Anna Washenko

PRS for Music, a UK collection agency, announced that it paid out record royalties to its members last year. The group’s 2017 payouts totaled £605.1 million, up 14.7% from the 2016 amounts. PRS said that 6.6 trillion performances were reported last year, a 53% on-year increase that led to a record-high collection total of £717 million. Continue Reading →