Royalty

SoundExchange Pureplay Webcasters Agreement (PDFs Attached)

Authored by Ned Sherman on July 13, 2009 - 10:59am.

Last week, we reported that SoundExchange, the firm set up by the major record labels to collect and distribute digital royalties, announced that it has agreed on new streaming music royalties for "pureplay" commercial webcasters. For those of you interested in the specifics of the deal, here are "Exhibit A - Agreed Rates and Terms for Commercial Webcasters Including Small Pureplay Webcasters" and "SoundExchange's Letter to the Copyright Office about the Agreement."

Librarian of Congress Names Copyright Royalty Judges

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 5, 2006 - 6:58am.

Washington - The Librarian of Congress on Thursday announced the appointment of the first three Copyright Royalty Judges, who will hear any disputes in matters such as the fixing of royalties paid to copyright holders to stream music online. The new Chief Copyright Royalty Judge is James S. Sledge; also appointed were Stanley C. Wisniewski, who has expertise in economics, and William J. Roberts, whose expertise is copyright law. Biographical information on the judges, who will assume office on Jan. 9, is available from the link below.

cTalks Between Music Publishers, Subscription Services Break Down

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 29, 2005 - 5:31am.

San Francisco -- Negotiations on how much digital music subscription services like Napster, Yahoo and Rhapsody should pay music publishers for the rights to offer their songwriters' music have broken down, CNET News.com reported. While agreements exist with download services and online radio stations, the subscription services have only a temporary deal with music publishers, which has been in place since 2001. While the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is currently asking for 17% of subscription services' revenues -- a premium over the 5.25% paid for Internet radio and 8.5% for downloads -- the Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents Yahoo, RealNetworks and others, has offered 6.9% of revenues. The subscription services say they "cannot justify -- for any executive regardless of title -- paying double and triple royalties in comparison to historical industry economics," DiMA executive director Jon Potter wrote in a letter to the publishers groups on Friday.

tags: Royalty | Music Publishers | Subscription Services Break Down |

Large Webcasters, SoundExchange Propose Music Royalty Agreement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 31, 2004 - 10:03am.

Washington -- The Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group of large music webcasters, announced that it has filed a joint petition with SoundExchange, the recording industry's digital royalty collection body, to renew the current webcasting royalty rates for the period of 2005-2006. The U.S. Copyright Office will publish the agreement and accept comments in its review of the proposed deal, which would eliminate the necessity of holding another contentious Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP). The agreement would cover large webcasters including AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and RealNetworks, while smaller webcasters would still be free to negotiate their own terms. "DiMA companies continue to believe that royalties paid by our industry to sound recording companies and artists are unfairly high and above-market-rate," said DiMA executive director Jon Potter. "Nevertheless, in the interests of focusing our industry's limited resources on the continuing effort to build profitable businesses and defeat piracy, DiMA has agreed to avoid arbitration and the associated costs for at least another year or two."

House Passes Copyright Royalty Determination Process Reform Act

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 4, 2004 - 6:51am.

Washington -- The U.S. House on Wednesday passed a bill that would reform the current process used to determine the royalties that webcasters must pay to stream music online, abandoning the current governing body from an arbitration panel of several experts in favor of a single copyright judge. If passed in the Senate, the bill would replace the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP), which was hotly contested for years as the recording industry and webcasters battled over royalty rates. "We have found it very difficult to find arbitrators who have sufficient familiarity with copyright law, let alone the complex statutory licenses in the law and the unique procedures for royalty distributions and rate adjustments," Marybeth Peters, the Copyright Office's Register of Copyrights, told Radio and Internet Newsletter.

tags: Copyright | House | Royalty | Reform Act |

U.S. Copyright Office Publishes Official Music Webcasting Royalty Rates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 13, 2004 - 9:03am.

Washington -- The U.S. Copyright Office this week published the long-delayed official royalty rates that webcasters must pay to stream music online, essentially approving an agreement proposed in April 2003 between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a group of large webcasters. The rates, which many webcasters long argued with the RIAA and regulators would be prohibitively high for them to remain in business, will be effective for the period of 2003-2004. Webcasters must make a payment for the period of Jan. 1, 2003 through Feb. 29, 2004 by April 14, and from then on will make monthly payments. The Copyright Office also officially established SoundExchange -- an entity set up by the RIAA -- as the sole collector of these royalties, responsible for distributing payments to artists and copyright holders.

tags: U.S | Webcast | Musics | Royalty |

Negotiation Period Opens for New Streaming Music Royalty Rates

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 9, 2004 - 3:50am.

Washington -- The U.S. Copyright Office this week announced the opening of voluntary negotiations between record labels and webcasters to determine new royalty rates for streaming music online. The current rates, which expire this year, were arrived upon only after a bitter and prolonged arbitration process that some small webcasters are still protesting as being prohibitively high for them to continue broadcasting. Another CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) organized by the Copyright Office will be convened if new rates for the period of Jan. 1, 2005 through Dec. 31, 2006 cannot be agreed upon in the open market. The current negotiation period will remain open for six months.

tags: Musics | Royalty | Negotiation | Rates |

SoundExchange Rival Asks Copyright Office to Resolve Royalty Dispute

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2003 - 4:14am.

Burbank, Calif. -- An independent agency set up to collect royalty payments from webcasters who stream music online and distribute it to artists and copyright holders has asked the U.S. Copyright Office to arbitrate a dispute between itself and SoundExchange, a rival agency set up by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Burbank, Calif.-based Royalty Logic, Inc. (RLI) has asked the Copyright Office to convene a CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) because it believes artists it represents should not have portions of their royalty payments recouped to SoundExchange to pay for its licensing, litigation and other costs since 1995. Royalty Logic is also asking that webcasters make detailed reporting of the music they stream, so that payments can be more easily distributed through the correct agency.

tags: Copyright | SoundExchange | Royalty |

Copyright Royalty Payment Process Reform Bill Passes House Judiciary

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 29, 2003 - 10:01am.

Washington -- A bill designed to reform the controversial royalty arbitration process for deciding how much webcasters and others should pay to artists and copyright holders to distribute music online has passed a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. The Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2003 (H.R. 1417) would replace the current CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) system, an occasional three-member panel of random copyright expert,s with a full-time, independent Copyright Royalty Judge, to be appointed by the Librarian of Congress. The bill would also make sure that, unlike with the current system, royalty rates are firmly set before they actually go into effect.

Royalty Logic Files Opposition to RIAA/Webcaster Music Royalty Proposal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 15, 2003 - 2:05am.

Washington -- An independent royalty collection body has filed an objection to the recent joint proposal on Web music royalties filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Digital Media Association, a group representing large webcasters. Royalty Logic, currently the only independent alternative to the recording industry's SoundExchange authorized to collect royalties from webcasters to be paid to artists and record labels, filed the opposition with the U.S. Copyright Office. In its filing, Burbank, Calif.-based Royalty Logic argues that the proposal submitted by record labels and the big webcasters would eliminate competition in royalty collection, because artists and copyright owners would not be able to choose a royalty collection agent such as itself that does not first deduct litigation costs and other administrative fees charged by SoundExchange before delivering royalty payments. Royalty Logic says it should be allowed to offer its customers "lower administration costs, more flexible terms, more frequent payments, greater transparency in operation and better access to information." If the U.S. Copyright Office accepts Royalty Logic's position, or for some other reason rejects the RIAA/DiMA Web royalties proposal, another oft-criticized (CARP) Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel proceeding will be held.

Nintendo Cuts Royalty Rates for Third-Party Game Developers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 10, 2003 - 2:30am.

Tokyo -- In a bid to make creating titles for its GameCube video game console more attractive to independent game developers, Nintendo has lowered the royalty rates it charges those third-party game developers, Reuters reported on Thursday. The company hopes the decision will result in a greater number of must-have games for the GameCube, which has not met company sales goals. "Before our royalty rate was a little more aggressive so to the third party publisher it was a little less attractive to make games for GameCube," George Harrison, senior vice president of marketing for Nintendo of America, told Reuters. "We need to make sure that we have good relationships with all the independent publishers, because you never know where the next big hit game is going to come from." http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=2545899

tags: Games | Nintendo | Royalty | Third-Party |

RIAA, Digital Media Association Submit Joint Web Music Royalty Proposal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 3, 2003 - 3:20am.

Washington -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a group representing major record labels, and the Digital Media Association, which represents a group of webcasters, on Thursday submitted a proposal on industry-wide royalties that Internet radio services would pay to recording companies for use of their music in 2003 and 2004. Digital Media Association executive director Jonathan Potter called the agreement "a temporary band-aid that avoids millions of dollars of legal fees associated with a broken arbitration process, and thereby enables resources to be focused on high-quality programming that is enjoyed by millions of listeners." Additionally, Potter sided with lawmakers' efforts to reform the widely-criticized CARP (Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel) process which set the rates that currently apply for Web music royalties.

tags: RIAA | Digital Media | Proposal | Royalty |