All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.
Music licensing platform Jamendo is launching in the U.S. The company specializes in serving independent artists, running both a licensing platform for performers and a free streaming service for private, professional use. It has been operating in Europe for more than a decade, and now is officially bringing its two-pronged business model state-side. Continue Reading
Global label agency Merlin has announced reaching a milepost of $1-billion dollars or rights payments distributed to member labels. Merlin licenses on behalf of 20,000+ indie labels in 53 countries. Continue Reading
Spotify has secured a licensing deal with Warner Music Group, meaning the streaming service now has agreements with all three major labels. The Warner deal is one of the final pieces Spotify needs to progress with any means of going public. Continue Reading
Sony Music has signed a deal with Dubset, a startup that helps with the management of rights in remixes and DJ sets. This agreement will allow artists to monetize their work when it is used in those modified formats, while the creators of those remixes and sets can be legally distributed to Apple Music and Spotify. Continue Reading
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has unanimously upheld a ruling against the Personal Audio podcasting patent. The latest court decision is another win for both the EFF and the podcasting community after a few tense years in court. Continue Reading
The arbitration between the Radio Music License Committee and SESAC has yielded a new, lower licensing rate for participating stations. For the license period between Jan. 1, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2018, RMLC-Represented Stations will see a 60% discount applied to its SESAC license rate card. Continue Reading
ASCAP and BMI announced a collaboration that will see the two performing rights organizations create a single comprehensive database of musical works from their libraries. The database will contain an overview of shares and rights information for much of the music licensed in the United States, offering more clarity around music ownership. Continue Reading
Spotify has reportedly made progress toward securing a licensing deal with Warner Music Group. Reuters cited four unnamed sources in its exclusive report that the streaming company was moving closer to an agreement with the third major label. The specifics of this alleged arrangement are still being hammered out, but the sources told Reuters that the parties had already agreed to Spotify paying a smaller share of revenue to Warner in exchange for the label’s artists to window their work to paid subscribers for a period. Continue Reading
Licensing and royalties continue to create clouds for Spotify. The streaming company has been sued by two different parties for copyright infringement, with claims that Spotify did not obtain the required licenses to stream their respective catalogs. Continue Reading
Congress is preparing to address the topic of royalties for pre-1972 recordings, a move that sparked positive response from several music industry players. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) introduced the CLASSICS Act to establish royalty payments for the creators of music recorded prior to the advent of federal copyright laws in 1972. Representatives from SoundExchange, the RIAA, and Pandora have all reacted favorably toward this proposal. Continue Reading
Last week we began receiving notes from webcasting clients of two large hosting companies, Radionomy and StreamLicensing, noting that recent changes and communications had troubled their webcast stations. The two situations are coinciding in time, but are unrelated — except both are about music licensing. Continue Reading
Songwriter and publisher royalties have appeared once again as a sticking point for the Spotify streaming service. The New York Post’s Claire Atkinson is reporting that music publishers and songwriters are looking to receive a portion of Spotify’s equity when the company either goes public or finds an interested buyer. According to her sources, the National Music Publishers Association has been deeply interested in the question of equity since Spotify has been more seriously preparing for a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Continue Reading