All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.
Online radio company Pandora has signed a multiyear licensing agreement with Warner/Chappell Music. The public statement about the partnership says it will offer increased rate certainty and product flexibility for Pandora, while Warner/Chappell receives improved royalties for its songwriters. Continue Reading
As the webcasting world is poised with anticipation, The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has just announced that its royalty rate-setting decision will be publicized on Wednesday. The ruling deadline is Tuesday, and the CRB will deliver its ruling to the Register of Copyrights, and the proceeding participants, for review and removal of sensitive information that will be redacted from public documents. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) will finalize the Webcaster IV proceeding today. Here’s the background, the players, and what’s at stake.
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It was a short run. Aurous has formally settled with the RIAA for $3 million and has officially shut down. Aurous appeared on the scene in October, promoting itself as a free (and ad-free) streaming platform that pulled music from licensed third-party sources. Continue Reading
Pandora has added another direct licensing deal to its arsenal, this time with independent outfit SONGS Music Publishing. Details of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed. “Now is the time to move past the over-regulation of songwriter rights and towards a market-based approach to streaming music,” SONGS’ Matt Pincus said. Continue Reading
Pandora issued a follow-up press release today, after announcing yesterday that the company is issuing a $300-million debt offering to institutional investors. Pandora stock closed down 11.5% yesterday, and has inched downward another 2% this morning, nearing the year-to-date low of $11.51 per share. Continue Reading
One aspect of the music licensing ruling expected from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has been delivered, as an answer from the Register of Copyrights to a question posed by the CRB. The question? Whether webcasters could pay different royalty rates to major labels and non-major labels. Continue Reading
Broadcast law attorney and guest columnist David Oxenford explains the difference between interactive and non-interactive music services in the context of Adele’s new album release, which is withheld from on-demand listening platforms like Rhapsody and Spotify. Continue Reading
David Lowery, a former professional musician and now an advocate for artists’ rights, has written to the New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman to seek an investigation into unpaid mechanical royalties. This fall has seen some heated debate about licensing payments in the streaming music economy, particularly for publishers. Continue Reading
ASCAP has added information about the share of public performance rights it controls to its publicly available online ACE Database. According to the press release announcing the update, the database changes will support ASCAP’s request to the Justice Department for its members to have greater choice to withdraw certain digital rights. Continue Reading
Pandora and Sony/ATV have entered into a direct publishing deal, marking a breakthrough marketplace development between one of the biggest streaming companies and a major music publisher. Continue Reading
Global Interactive Media has gone on a tear of lawsuits on charges that several broadcasting companies have violated its patents. That intellectual property covers an “apparatus and method to generate and access broadcast information.” At this stage, it seems possible that the Belize-based company is looking to make money by pushing litigation over patents of questionable validity. But if the patent claims are legitimate, it could mean one more set of royalty payments for many types of audio companies. Continue Reading