All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.
Pandora has been re-thinking its licensing, inking direct deals with labels and publishers over the past two years. Despite those changes to the audio company’s licensing structures, SoundExchange will still be managing Pandora’s payouts to artists from the free tier. Continue Reading
Sacem, France’s collection society for songwriters and composers, announced a collaboration with IBM to create a new online royalty system. The project is called URights and will be built on the IBM Cloud. It could improve the ability to track online music usage and rights payments, as well as offering data analytics and local customizations. Continue Reading
Almost exactly one year after Live365 went dark, sending thousands of small webcasters scrambling for new platforms or giving up their stations, Live365 is back. Details are scarce, but this is what we know now. Continue Reading
The final week of the year is a good time to reflect on what was, and look forward to what will be. Today, the most-read articles and the #1 story of 2016. In an unprecedented concentration of interest, RAIN News readers drove our coverage of 2016’s most important news event to the top five most-read articles of the year. Continue Reading
Flo & Eddie’s see-saw of a legal case against Sirius XM has swung back in favor of the satellite radio company. New York appeals court Judge Leslie Stein ruled that the state’s common law does not protect public performance of pre-1972 sound recordings. Continue Reading
Kobalt announced that it will administer and provide publishing services for a majority of the legendary Elvis Presley’s catalog. The deal covers some of the “most desired tracks for film and TV trailers, soundtracks, and commercials,” Kobalt said in a statement. Continue Reading
In the most detailed and far-thinking report on Tom Wheeler’s resignation that we’ve seen, guest columnist and renowned broadcast attorney David Oxenford lays out what a Republican-controlled FCC could mean after Inauguration Day. Continue Reading
ASCAP announced a new five-year agreement with the Radio Music License Committee. This deal sets the public performance fee rates to be paid by commercial terrestrial radio stations for the rights to play ASCAP’s repertory across the years 2017-2021. Continue Reading
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler resigned today, effective January 20 (inauguration day). It is a customary resignation when a new political administration is headed for the White House. In this case, a Republican president overseeing an agreeable Congress makes likely a reversal of net neutrality. what does it mean for online audio? Continue Reading
Earlier this week, we reported on YouTube’s announcement that it made $1 billion in payouts to the music industry from advertising revenue alone during 2016. Although that seems like a striking metric, the news got an immediate response from the IFPI. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board has said that there will be no cost-of-living increase for the online stream and pureplay rates levied in 2017. Here are the key details about this development. Continue Reading
Tidal has been boasting that it had access to stream music from the late and great Prince, but the performer’s estate is raising an eyebrow about those claims. The estate says that Tidal was only permitted to stream Prince’s most recent albums rather than the entire catalog. Continue Reading