Spotify has announced plans to add a new component to its behind-the-scenes features. The streaming service is making a songwriters and publishers administration system to help ensure that the right people get the right payments for the music they have on the platform. Continue Reading
Intellectual property attorney Angus MacDonald was the first to calculate that Pandora paid more than half of all SoundExchange collections of royalties to record labels. At that time he spoke of implications for the Webcasting IV process which ended this week with new webcaster rates for 2016. We asked MacDonald for his thoughts about the ruling, and he sent us his analysis. Continue Reading
The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) unsurprisingly took a middle road, treading a line between the $.0011 that Pandora requested, and the $.0025 that SoundExchange argued for on behalf of music rights-holders. P stock shot upward in after-hours. The company scheduled a conference call for later this evening. Continue Reading
SoundExchange released its third-quarter figures for payments made and received from digital radio. The rights manager paid out $204 million in the quarter to 87,219 payees. The timing of this release is pointed, as today the Copyright Royalty Board is slated to release its decision on the statutory royalty rates to be paid by non-interactive streaming platforms during 2016-2020. Pandora is one of the bigger players to be impacted by this ruling, but SoundExchange has just as much on the line. Continue Reading
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
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
Spotify has put Victory Records’ catalog back up for streaming on its service. The music was removed after highly publicized allegations that the streaming platform owed royalties to the indie label and its publishing arm. 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
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Insights into Spotify In Residence: Merlin CEO pens op-ed against two-tier publishing rates; a new addition to NextRadio’s platform. Continue Reading
Pandora has filed an appeal against the decision of Judge Louis L. Stanton in the rate-setting case with BMI. The appeal argues that the original trial was “a case study in how a district court should not handle a rate court case.” Continue Reading
Buzz, accusations, and legal jargon are swirling around the echosphere today in the wake of Spotify’s removal of the Victory Records song catalog from its library. Music licensing and royalty payouts in interactive streaming services are complex, sometimes compared to an impenetrable black box. Is there a solution? Continue Reading