“The way fans listen to music is evolving daily,” Azoff said. “GMR is going to give songwriters and publishers an opportunity to engage in meaningful licensing for their intellectual property. The trampling of writers’ rights in the digital marketplace without any regard to their contribution to the creative process will no longer be tolerated.”
Global Music Rights is a new performing rights organization that aims to secure larger royalties for songwriters. Randy Grimmett, one of Azoff’s colleague’s at GMR, cited the direct deals publishers have made with Pandora as examples of how the music industry should also be approaching YouTube.