All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.
The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), tasked with setting the royalty rates and terms for webcasting performances of records, has started the next every-five-years process. What comes next is two years of exhibits and legal argument from both sides — labels which own the music, and webcasters who play the music. Continue Reading
The acquisition of performance rights organization BMI by New Mountain Capital, which transpired late last week, will put approximately $100-million of cash into iHeart’s balance sheet. Along with that, BMI announced that $100-million of post-sale proceeds will be distributed to music creators. There is some controversy. Continue Reading
Ex-Spotify exec, author (Tarzan Economics) and independent researcher Will Page has released his annual figure for the total global value of music copyrights. He calls it a milestone and a triumph for music in the scope of all media channels. It’s an important read. Continue Reading
Rights management and revenue distribution company BMI has released its annual report (HERE). While the public document does not contain a detailed financial breakout, some success metrics are described by President and CEO Michael O’Neill. BMI is a PRO (Performance… Continue Reading
In a public memo to its Artificial Intelligence customers, Google Cloud promises to take responsibility for legal challenges arising from using Duet AI, one of the company’s AI engines. The memo was posted by two Google Cloud executives. Read for a deeper explanation. Continue Reading
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has identified voice-cloning services as threats to musicians’ intellectual property, and reported Voicify particularly to the U.S. government. Voicify.ai was the only service called out by name, though it certainly is not the only service in the game. The RIAA makes two specific complaints. Continue Reading
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.
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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