DiMA

SoundExchange, Pureplay Webcasters Reach Royalty Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 7, 2009 - 9:37am.
Washington - SoundExchange, the firm set up by the major record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, announced on Monday that it has agreed on new streaming music royalties for "pureplay" commercial webcasters. The "experimental rate agreement" includes revenue sharing for most services, as well as more robust reporting requirements, in exchange for a discount on per stream rates.

Senate Passes Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 18, 2009 - 8:18am.
Washington - The U.S. Senate has passed the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009, which if signed by President Obama will allow webcasters to continue to negotiate the controversial royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board with rights holders. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.); a companion bill passed in the House earlier this month.

Music Reports Debuts Web Royalty Accounting for Webcasting

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 20, 2009 - 12:44pm.
Woodland Hills, Calif. - Music Reports, a provider of music rights administration services, said on Wednesday that it has started accounting to more than 12,000 music publishing administrators representing over 50,000 individual music publishers, on behalf of its digital music service clients. The accounting comes on the heels of the recent agreement on mechanical licensing between songwriters, labels, webcasters and the Copyright Royalty Board. Starting this month, music publishing administrators will be able to log into MusicReports.com to view accountings, download monthly usage reports, and update song ownership information.

Lawmakers Introduce Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 12, 2009 - 11:31am.
Washington - Lawmakers on Tuesday introduced the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009, which would provide commercial webcasters with an additional opportunity to obtain financial relief from the Copyright Royalty Board's (CRB) 2007 Internet radio royalty decision. Webcasters are seeking to implement royalty rates for Internet music broadcasting that are similar to the rates set for cable and satellite radio broadcasters.

CNET: Webcasters, Music Industry Battling Over Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 23, 2009 - 8:52am.
San Francisco - CNET News.com on Monday published an account of the ongoing negotiations between webcasters and the music industry on royalty rates for streaming music on the Internet.

NAB, SoundExchange Reach Accord on Music Webcast Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 17, 2009 - 12:48pm.
Washington - Commercial radio stations represented by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) have reached an agreement on music webcasting royalty rates with SoundExchange, the entity set up by major record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties. Under the new deal, which replaces terms set by the Copyright Royalty Board in 2007 that were near-universally decried by webcasters as too high, royalty rates will be lowered by 16% for 2009 and 2010, before gradually increasing through 2015.

Public Radio, SoundExchange Agree on Webcast Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 15, 2009 - 11:48am.

Washington - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) on Thursday said it has reached an agreement with SoundExchange, an entity set up by record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, on the rates and terms that public radio stations will pay to stream music online. Under the terms, which cover the period of January 2005 through December 2010, SoundExchange will receive an upfront payment of $1.85 million, in addition to "consolidated usage and playlist reporting from CPB on behalf of the entire public radio system," FMQB.com reports.

tags: Law | Policy | Music | Copyright | NPR | DiMA | SoundExchange | CPB | CRB |

Analysis: Webcaster Settlement Act - What Does It Mean?

Authored by David Oxenford on October 3, 2008 - 7:36am.

Both the House and the Senate have now approved the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2008, which will become law when it is signed by the President. Just what does this bill do? It does not announce a settlement of the contentious Internet Radio royalty dispute, about which we have extensively written here. It does not change the standard for judging Internet radio royalties, as had been proposed in the Internet Radio Equality Act, introduced last year and now seemingly dead in the waning days of this Congress, and in the Perform Act, about which we wrote here (the IREA and the Perform Act proposed different standards – the first more favorable to webcasters and the second more favorable to SoundExchange).

Copyright Royalty Board Rejects Rate Hike for Songwriters

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 2, 2008 - 10:05am.

Washington - The rate that digital retailers like Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes must pay songwriters and music publishers will stay the same under a decision handed down Thursday by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which rejected the publishers' petition for a 66% rate hike. The decision to freeze royalty rates at 9 cents per song for songwriters and music publishers comes as it was revealed this week by Fortune magazine, that Apple said in a letter sent to the CRB last year it might shutter its iTunes music store should it have to incur any increase in music royalties that would make the store unprofitable.

Senate Passes Webcaster Settlement Act, Sends to President

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 30, 2008 - 12:47pm.

Washington - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved the Webcaster Settlement Act, which passed in the House over the weekend and was introduced to allow webcasters to continue to negotiate new royalty agreements with copyright owners while Congress is busy with the elections. "This legislation will enable the Digital Media Association (DiMA) and our member companies, and all Internet radio services, to continue negotiating royalty rates with SoundExchange for the years 2006-2015. We are very hopeful of reaching agreement soon, and thereby creating long-term stability that will re-energize the Internet radio business," said DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Music Industry Reaches Deal on Some Digital Royalties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 23, 2008 - 8:13am.

Washington - The major record labels, music publishers and large webcasters on Tuesday announced a breakthrough agreement on royalty payments for interactive streaming and limited digital downloads, which will for the first time see mechanical royalty payments on these services. Under the agreement, which was submitted as draft regulations to the Copyright Royalty Board, providers of limited download and interactive streaming services -- including subscription and ad-supported services -- will generally pay a mechanical royalty of 10.5% of revenue, with minimum payments in certain circumstances.

tags: Law | Policy | Music | RIAA | Copyright | DiMA | NMPA | CRB |

Web Retailers Ask Court to Declare 30-Second Samples 'Fair Use'

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 19, 2008 - 9:00am.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group that represents webcasters and online retailers like Apple and Amazon, on Friday asked a federal court to rule that online retailers' use of 30-second music preview clips are "fair use," and not subject to royalty payments.

Report: Deals Reached on Several Digital Music Royalty Issues

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 20, 2008 - 10:34am.

New York - The major players in contentious negotiations over digital music royalties, which pit music publishers, record labels and digital music services against one another, have reached a settlement on two of five major issues, Billboard reported, citing an account from David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

Judge Calculates Web Radio Royalties Owed to ASCAP

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 1, 2008 - 9:52am.

New York - A federal judge in New York has created a formula for calculating the royalties that large webcasters AOL (NYSE: TWX), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) must pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming their songs between 2002 and 2009, which could provide just one performing rights organization, ASCAP, as much as $100 million in payments. U.S. District Judge William Conner's ruling stipulates that the webcasters must pay 2.5% of music-related revenue to ASCAP's 320,000 members; by that math, for 2006, AOL owes $5.95 million, and Yahoo owes $6.76 million.

Music Publishers Sue Online Music Service MediaNet

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 13, 2008 - 11:45am.

Washington - Several members of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) on Wednesday filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against MediaNet, a company that powers digital music services for Microsoft, Yahoo, MTV and others, claiming they failed to obtain proper licenses for use of songwriters' and publishers' works.

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.

Copyright Judges to Decide on Digital Music Mechanical Royalty

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 5, 2008 - 11:40am.

Washington - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) began hearing arguments from music publishers, record labels, and digital music distributors on Monday, on how much songwriters and music publishers should be paid when music is streamed or downloaded, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

tags: Music | RIAA | Copyright | DiMA | NMPA | CRB |

Digital Media Assoc. Hires Director of Government Affairs

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 17, 2008 - 1:22pm.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents the interests of large webcasters including AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo, has hired Greg Barnes, former senior counsel to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, to become the association's legislative counsel and director of government affairs. "We look forward to having Greg on board as we continue to help digital media companies achieve a regulatory and business environment that supports industry growth, creative and technological innovation and greater consumer enjoyment of digital content," DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Webcasters, Publishers in Dispute Over Interactive Streams

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 8, 2008 - 11:18am.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents large webcasters like Yahoo, (NASD: YHOO) AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), has filed a brief asking the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to refer the question of whether or not an interactive music stream needs a separate "reproduction" license, in addition to the performance license they already pay, to the U.S. Copyright Office, Billboard reported. "Digital music services believe that digital performances are like radio and should require a performance license only," DiMA said in a statement, referring to the license that both webcasters and radio broadcasters pay to performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

Large Webcasters Petition Lawmakers for Royalty Rate Parity

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 6, 2007 - 10:16am.

Washington - Large Internet radio purveyors AOL (NYSE: TWX), Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK), Pandora and Live365 earlier this week sent a letter to key lawmakers in Washington, asking them to consider performance royalty parity for broadcast, satellite, cable and Internet radio. The letter was addressed to U.S. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), whose committees are currently re-evaluating the broadcast radio industry's royalty rate exemption.