In a move that will transform Italy’s relationship with Netflix, the Italian government has set a firm three-month time window between a movie’s theatrical release and when it can drop on a streaming platform. The announcement was made by Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini during a Rome confab on the state of the country’s film industry.
Source: Italy to Set Firm 90-Day Window Between Theatrical Release and Streaming Play
Maryland state attorneys have declined to appeal a preliminary injunction issued last month that bars the state’s library e-book law from being enforced. This week, the court ordered the state to show cause as to why a permanent injunction should not be issued.
Source: Maryland Library E-book Law Faces Permanent Injunction
Recently we’ve seen a rash of NFTs associated with popular artists or their songs being offered to the public apparently without the artist’s or copyright holder’s knowledge, involvement, or permission. These sites are charging exorbitant prices for these NFTs, promising ownership in a “unique song recording” and often featuring album art or artist photos to lure in unsuspecting fans.
Source: RIAA Chairman: Market for Music-Related NFTs Must Protect Artists and Fans (Guest Column)
Janet Kirker has been named Chief Product Officer at Synchtank, a UK-based, B2B SaaS company providing asset and rights management and royalty accounting solutions for the music, media and production industries. Kirker’s appointment follows Synchtank’s $5.8 million Series A fundraise in November, which was led by Octopus Ventures.
Source: Janet Kirker named Chief Product Officer at UK-based Synchtank
Asked why ICE was making the hire and what its challenges are currently, CEO Peter de Mönnink told The Stack: “Solving the music industry’s data puzzle is vital for songwriters to secure a living from their artform. The explosion in music creation and omnipresence of digital music have rocketed the scale of the industry’s data challenge.”
Source: ICE ICE BABY: Music copyright firm hires new CTO amid digital overhaul
Higher interest rates could hurt demand for music catalogs if investors are able to find attractive yields elsewhere, or switch to inflation-indexed assets such as certain types of real estate. Inflation, currently running at 7.9% in the U.S., will reduce the purchasing power of future cash flows generated by music catalogs.
Four years after Judith Sheindlin, CBS and others were sued by a producer from the early seasons of the Judge Judy series and the estate of another producer over profits from the big bucks sale of the show’s library, the almost lucratively esoteric dispute looks to have come to the end of the legal road, at least for now.
Source: Judge Judy & CBS Win Battle Over Profits From Sale Of Syndicated Series’ Library
Minters of collectible non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken a wide range of approaches. In addition to variations in the means of distribution, token standards, governing smart contracts and platforms on which initial sales or transfers are made, the terms, conditions and content licenses (or lack thereof) under which users take possession of an NFT often differ from project to project.
The longstanding 9.1 cent mechanical royalty songwriters and publishers earn for every song sold may be a thing of the past. On Tuesday (March 29), the Copyright Royalty Board agreed to abandon that mechanical settlement between music publishers, record labels and digital services for the sale of songs for the upcoming 2023-2027 rate period, giving way to a new battle over what the rate should be for physical and download sales.
Source: The 9.1 Cent Mechanical Royalty Rate Ditched in New CRB Ruling
SoundExchange, which said last summer that it had paid out $947 million to creators during the 2020 fiscal year, just recently unveiled this latest performance-royalty milestone. Worth noting here is that the non-profit communicated that it had distributed “nearly $8 billion” as of late June of 2021.
Source: SoundExchange Announces $235MM In Q1 ’22 Payouts, 150th Distribution