Mechanical Royalties, Pirates and RIAA/DiMA

Authored by Jay Baage on February 8, 2008 - 8:12am.

I case you missed it, John Paczkowski of AllThingsD (nice to meet you at CES by the way) discussed if the R.I.A.A. should really stand for Recording Industry Against Artists yesterday (embedded above). The royalty debate is a big one and we've had some wild discussions about it at past DMW events (and we'll likely see more of those at this year's DMFE at the end of the month). My take on the issue is that the (mechanical) royalty system need to be totally changed to be in tune with business models which make sense in a digital age. Decreasing the mechanical royalties for digital downloads could work in the artists' favor. It is a simple question of supply and demand. Sure, you can price legal digital downloads high and pay artists more on paper. But, in reality, is 15 percent of nothing better than 5 percent of something? I look forwards to what Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemma, will have to say about it at DMFE.