All about copyright, understanding music licensing, and government regulations.
In a Manhattan U.S. District Court, a ruling in the BMI vs. Pandora royalty rate case went in BMI’s direction late yesterday, raising the rate at which Pandora must pay for BMI-represented music by 43%. Continue Reading
Rdio has added a new subscription tier focused on mobile listening to its available offerings. Rdio Select offers elements of both lean-back and on-demand listening on mobile devices for $3.99 a month. It is an innovative, carefully considered competitive gambit. Continue Reading
The RIAA and the BPI have issued their 200 millionth URL takedown request to Google. The RIAA has submitted 19,569 total requests and the BPI has made 295,730. These requests seek to remove pirated content from the web. The two record industry organizations for the U.S. and UK, respectively, have been pushing for the tech company to adopt stricter measures to prevent this type of music piracy. Continue Reading
In a slow-moving patent lawsuit about the right to use HD Radio technology, defending radio groups have been dismissed from the case. the case dismissal was ordered “with prejudice,” meaning that it cannot be re-introduced. Continue Reading
The Canadian government recently extended the term of copyright for sound recordings from 50 years to 70. However, CISAC is seeking even more drastic action in Canada’s rules to offer more support for compositions after death. Continue Reading
Pandora has prevailed in an appeal case brought by ASCAP, which sought to overturn a court judgment in March, 2014. ASCAP announced in August that it would pursue an appeal of that ruling. Continue Reading
The FCC has granted Pandora broadcast approval permission to own a terrestrial radio station. This means that Pandora has cleared the major hurdle to complete its $600,000 purchase of the KXMZ station in Rapid City, South Dakota, which it started in 2013. Continue Reading
We reported on Monday that Grooveshark was facing potentially immense financial damages judgment in its drawn-out copyright infringement trial with record labels. That particular threat appears to be neutralized in a settlement which includes the final closure of Grooveshark.com, the service, and a handover of all company assets. Continue Reading
A two-year music copyright review ended yesterday, when Copyright Office chief Maria Pallante criticized terrestrial radio’s performance royalty exemption as “indefensible,” and called for change. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board has begun the hearing phase of its proceeding to set the royalties to be paid by webcasters for the years 2016-2020. Broadcast law attorney David Oxenford witnessed the day-ong event. Continue Reading
Digital music distributor TuneCore announced first-quarter results — as usual, not in terms of revenue to the company, but through the lens of payouts to musician clients. Artists earned over $36-million in Q1. Continue Reading
Yesterday in Washington, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) held an opening hearing to start the trial portion of Webcasting IV, the music royalty rate-setting process for the upcoming 2016-2020 royalty period. We spoke to sources who were in the (apparently rather small) room). Continue Reading