royalties
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Spotify's deal with Dubset means more remixes to stream
Back in March, Apple reached a deal with Dubset to make sure sampled artists in remixes and DJ mixes on its music service were properly compensated. Last week, Spotify did the same, inking an agreement to leverage Dubset's MixBANK distribution platform to ensure that both the artists creating the mixes and those being sampled receive the royalties they're due. The MixBANK system checks an uploaded track for copyrighted material before getting permission for its use from the correct label and/or publisher.
Spotify agrees to pay millions for unmatched royalties
Spotify has come an agreement with NMPA (National Music Publishers Association) over unpaid royalties for music on the streaming service that didn't have copyright owner information. According to The Verge, the company will pay $21 million.
Spotify is on the hook for $150 million in class-action suit
A class-action lawsuit filed this week claims that Spotify knowingly and willingly distributes songs without obtaining the proper, mechanical licenses, Billboard reports. The suit, filed by the band Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker frontman David Lowery on December 28th, seeks $150 million in damages. The artists launched a class-action suit because Spotify's actions affect more than 100 people, according to the complaint.
Spotify pledges to fix the music industry's royalty problems
Paying artists for streams isn't just Spotify's problem -- the whole industry is stuck with a royalty model that's better suited for physical sales than streaming. Spotify is the one that's pledging to fix that, though. In a recent blog post the company dives into the complexity of licensing systems, noting that different publishers own the rights to the same tracks in different countries.
Spotify is going to keep missing out on big albums
According to The Wall Street Journal's sources, Coldplay's new album won't be streaming on Spotify. Before you shrug, mutter something insulting about Coldplay and walk away, this is actually quite important. It's indicative of the continued rift between music labels and the number one streaming service in the world, Spotify. Coldplay (Ghost Stories and Mylo Xyloto), Adele (21), the Black Keys (Turn Blue), and Taylor Swift (Red and 1989) have all withheld albums from the service temporarily or indefinitely for a single reason: the company's free tier.
Pandora signs $90 million truce with the recording industry
Thanks to a quirk of copyright law, songs recorded before February 15th, 1972 weren't covered at the federal level. It's a loophole of sorts that Pandora, amongst others, has exploited to play classic pre-1972 tracks without paying a cent to the record labels. Or, at least, that was the case, since the firm has just signed a deal with the RIAA that'll see it pay $90 million to get the record industry to stop hassling it in the courts for unpaid royalties. It's the second big deal of its kind to land in the last few months, with Sirius XM paying $210 million in a similar deal back in June. It's probably not worth mentioning that the RIAA is scoring another own-goal, since services like Pandora are good for music sales, is it.
Major UK music body sues SoundCloud over unpaid royalties
With 175 million unique listeners each month, SoundCloud has established itself as a major player in the streaming space. Despite its size, the company has faced an uphill battle to convert its huge community into customers who are willing to pay for "unprecedented access to the world's largest community of music & audio creators." SoundCloud has struck deals with some major labels and independent artists, but in the UK, the Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS) has decided to take legal action against the music sharing service for allegedly not paying artists the royalties they deserve.
SiriusXM will pay $210 million to use songs recorded before 1972
Before now, satellite radio company SiriusXM wasn't paying royalties on the catalog recorded before 1972 that it beamed to customers. Today, the company agreed to pay $210 million for those songs, compensating both independent and major record labels for using their material. The settlement comes after ABKCO Music & Records, Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings and Warner Music Group filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM in 2013. Under the terms of the agreement, the satellite radio service can "to reproduce, perform and broadcast" the library of tunes until December 31, 2017 without further payments. This means that tracks from the likes of the Rolling Stones, Gloria Gaynor and many more will be subject to agreements. Why weren't they protected before? Material recorded prior to February 15, 1972 isn't subject to the same protections as songs released after, so streaming services and radio stations weren't required to pay licensing fees.
Eternify tricks Spotify into paying bands more with 30-second loops (update)
If you don't mind completely ignoring the service's terms for a little extra dough from Spotify, Eternify can lend a hand. The website games the streaming service's payouts by streaming 30-second clips from an artist on an endless loop, which, of course, is a complete violation of the streaming service's terms and conditions. It's the work of the band Ohm and Sport, and the site's plays aim to boost an artist's royalties by keeping its catalog going for as long as you can stand it.
Apple won't pay royalties during Music's trial period
A leaked Apple Music contract surfaced last week containing details about how it plans to compensate indie labels for music streamed during the trial period. According to the document Apple won't pay royalties to independent music labels -- or unsigned artists, we'd imagine -- while users test drive the app. Re/code confirmed that the company won't pay royalties to any labels, major or indie, for tracks users stream during the trial in an interview with Apple's Robert Kondrk, an executive who is in on the negotiations.
SoundCloud inks licensing deal with 20,000 indie labels
SoundCloud continues to lend a hand to independent artists, and today the music site announced a royalty agreement with Merlin. While the name may not ring a bell, Merlin works with 20,000 indie labels and distributors including Beggars Group (Vampire Weekend), Secretly Group (Bon Iver), Domino (Animal Collective), Kontor Records (Tiësto) and more. Merlin works with smaller outfits to negotiate things like royalties and licensing, which is exactly what it's done here with SoundCloud. The deal means that on top of being able to pipe in content from labels and distro, the streaming repository will offer compensation when tunes are played. "You'll also be able to discover and listen to more new tracks from the best independent label creators on the planet, safe in the knowledge they'll now have the opportunity to get paid while you listen," a blog post announcing the deal explains.
Judge rules Pandora has to increase royalty payouts to BMI
Pandora's propensity for litigation is pretty storied by this point, but it seems like the internet-radio outfit's luck has run out. A New York judge has ruled that Pandora must raise its payout rates to Taylor Swift's music publishing house BMI, from 1.75 percent of its revenue to 2.5 percent, according to The New York Times. The full ruling is still being kept under wraps at the moment, but naturally, Pandora says it's going to appeal the decision. Given that an appeals judge recently ruled in the outfit's favor to keep royalty payout rates from rising, it isn't clear what could happen in this instance. For artists' sakes, let's hope that history doesn't repeat itself here. [Image credit: Getty Images for TS]
Musicians and Congress join forces in fight for royalty reform
Fair artist compensation from internet radio and streaming services is quite the hot topic of late, and now members of Congress are joining the debate. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, and Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, alongside the musicFIRST Coalition, introduced the Fair Play Fair Pay Act today that would end regulations that don't require terrestrial radio stations to pay royalties to artists and labels. As it stands, those AM/FM stations available in your car only pay licensing fees to songwriters and publishers. Organizations like ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) handle those agreements, collecting fees every time a copyrighted song is played on the radio or during a public performance. For its part in managing those agreements, ASCAP brought in over $1 billion last year.
Apple ordered to pay $532.9 million to an iTunes patent troll (update)
Despite attempts to curb patent trolls, at least some of them are getting lucky -- and this week, one got very lucky. A Texas court has ordered Apple to pay a whopping $532.9 million to Smartflash, a holding company which sued over claims that iTunes (specifically its copy protection, payment systems and storage) violates its patents. The Cupertino crew allegedly abused the inventions on purpose, in part because one of its execs was briefed on them over a decade ago.
The most streamed single of 2013 only earned its authors $4,000 each
Avicii's song Wake Me Up has been played more than 168 million times in the last year and a half, making it one of the most streamed songs, ever. You wouldn't be blamed, therefore, for thinking that co-writer Aloe Blacc has made some serious bank from his labors. Unfortunately, in an editorial for Wired, the songwriter reveals that he's only received $4,000 in royalties from Pandora, America's biggest streaming service. His voice is joining that of other artists like Taylor Swift, who believes that companies like Spotify and Pandora are seriously devaluing the work of songwriters. He also points an accusatory finger at outdated royalty laws that mean that he has no control over the price, or use, of his music so long as a minimum fee is paid - something that he hopes will change in order to enable musicians to make a living doing what so many people love. We'd make a joke about Blacc's breakthrough record being I Need a Dollar, but it'd probably be in poor taste.
Spotify reportedly earns musicians more cash than iTunes in Europe
If you ask some musicians, Spotify is a trap; they earn so little from the service that they'd rather pull their albums and risk additional piracy. That's not necessarily true in every case, though. Kobalt Music Publishing, which represents songwriters like Lenny Kravitz and Paul McCartney, claims that its artists earned 13 percent more royalties from Spotify in Europe during the first quarter of the year than they made through iTunes sales. That's a sharp contrast from the year before, when iTunes was still the dominant money-maker. Kobalt claims that it's all about volume. While songsters get far less revenue per person from Spotify, the sheer number of listeners (three times as many) makes up the difference.
Samsung worries that its Microsoft royalty payments amount to collusion
Samsung was quick to cite the acquisition of Nokia as a reason for holding out on Microsoft's royalty payments, but there weren't many details. Just what had it spooked? Thanks to some new court filings, we now have a clearer sense of its motivations. Simply put, the Korean tech giant is worried about "charges of collusion" now that Microsoft is a direct competitor in the smartphone business. The patent deal requires that Samsung not only make Windows Phones, but hand over sensitive business details -- both big problems when Microsoft could use them to gain a competitive edge. Samsung already stopped handing over those trade secrets over jitters that American antitrust regulators would step in.
New music royalty rates may cost Apple
A pair of organizations representing music artists is pushing for the U.S. government to give the music industry more freedom in deciding what to charge for music, AppleInsider reports. In turn, streaming services like Apple's iTunes Radio and the newly acquired Beats Music could feel a bit of a pinch if rising prices leave too small a margin. Royalties on music are going through some growing pains at the moment, and really ever since streaming music services became the norm. Many of the current standards have been in place for decades, and long before the idea of on-demand music was even conceivable. A reworking of the laws in place is probably a good thing on all fronts, but how it could affect current streaming services remains to be seen.
Band games Spotify by streaming silent tracks for cash
When you listen to a song on Spotify, the artist is paid around $0.0007, which is hardly enough to send an up-and-coming act out on tour. Imagine, however, if a band's small but devoted fanbase played a short album on repeat for a whole night, each one would earn around $4. That's the inspired idea behind Sleepify, an album from the band Vulfpeck, which comprises 11 x 32-second-long tracks of silence, specifically to game Spotify's royalty system and fund the band's forthcoming tour. If we're honest, we're envious that we didn't come up with the idea first -- although some might say that John Cage got there well before the rest of us.
Judge overturns ruling in John Madden Football designer's case
Despite winning his case against Electronic Arts back in July, John Madden Football designer Robin Antonick will not see his promised $11 million. The San Francisco Chronicles reports US district judge Charles Breyer has overturned that ruling. Breyer said there was no clear evidence that Antonick's work had been copied by EA without his permission. Breyer added that jurors in the original ruling weren't shown Antonick's game alongside EA's subsequent efforts, as the law requires in copyright infringement disputes, and therefore were unable to make a proper evaluation. Antonick's lawyer Robert Carey said they plan to appeal Breyer's new ruling, of course, and added that evidence showed EA "used his source code without permission." Antonick first filed suit against EA back in 2011. The original John Madden Football launched in 1988 on the C64, Apple 2 and on MS-DOS. The modern incarnation of the series is one of EA's most successful franchises. Antonick is currently working on a basketball game called Grudge Match.
