Rights

With a lack of affiliation with PROs and CMOs, indie songwriters and publishers generally miss out on the opportunities these organizations can offer. As a European IME, Bridger is authorized to collect mechanical and performing rights royalties directly without intermediaries. Unlike most other global distribution and royalty collection services that serve as copyright administrators, Bridger functions like a CMO for smaller, underrepresented indie artists.

Source: Bridger Is Building a PRO Alternative for Indie Artists

The Copyright Royalty Board issued a landmark determination Tuesday (May 23) for Phonorecords III, maintaining an up to 44% raise for U.S. songwriters and publishers’ headline rate for mechanicals by the end of the period of 2018 to 2022. The ruling increases those royalties each year during the five-year period — from 11.4% to 15.1% of service revenue by 2022 — but also affirmed key requests from streaming services during their lengthy appeal.

Source: Songwriters’ Streaming Royalties Have Been Determined (Finally)

The music industry has been grappling with the challenge of royalty payments for a long time. The royalty payment system involves multiple stakeholders, including record labels, publishers, and performance rights organizations (PROs), which can make the process opaque and complex. This can result in mistrust within the industry and lead to difficulties in tracking and distributing royalties accurately.

Source: Dispelling the utopian dream: the complex reality of music royalties (Guest column) – Music Ally

IMPALA’s questioning of a potential “reform” of the “allocation” of streaming revenue – vis à vis music publishing and recorded music – has predictably not gone down well with the US-based National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA). After reading the IMPALA report, NMPA CEO David Israelite said, “The IMPALA report implying that songwriters should receive less from streaming models is irresponsible and offensive.”

Source: ‘Irresponsible and offensive’: NMPA’s David Israelite does not like IMPALA’s new report on the ‘music streaming pie’. At all.

IMPALA’s new report points out that the Intellectual Property Office study found that “under streaming, the label’s share of revenue has decreased (concurrently to an increase of revenues to artists) and that the share allocated to publishing rights has increased significantly more than that of recording rights (with songwriters seeing a corresponding increase)”.

Source: Indie labels question if record companies’ share of streaming royalties is ‘undervalued’ vs. music publishers’ slice of the pie

The music industry has applauded the Supreme Court’s opinion in a lawsuit concerning fair use, emphasizing its import amid the advent of AI. “We hope those who have relied on distorted – and now discredited – claims of ‘transformative use,’ such as those who use copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence systems without authorization, will revisit their practices in light of this important ruling,” RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier said.

Source: Music Industry Applauds Supreme Court’s Prince Artwork Opinion

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the late Andy Warhol infringed on a photographer’s copyright when he created a series of silk screens based on a photograph of the late singer Prince. The ruling was 7-2, with Justice Elena Kagan penning a stinging dissent and arguing that the opinion will “stifle creativity of every sort.” The opinion has been closely anticipated by the global art world watching to see how the court would balance an artist’s freedom to borrow from existing works and the restrictions of copyright law.

Source: Supreme Court rules against Andy Warhol in copyright dispute over Prince portrait | CNN Politics

The suit, filed on May 16 in the Northern district of Florida in Pensacola, alleges that administrators and school board members in Florida’s Escambia County School District are violating the First Amendment as well as the 14th Amendment (the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution) because the books being singled out are “disproportionately books by non-white and/or LGBTQ+ authors” and often address “themes or topics” related to race or LGBTQ+ community.

Source: PEN America, Penguin Random House Sue Florida School District Over ‘Unconstitutional’ Book Bans

The idea under discussion with Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music would operate much like the one laid out by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act but would cite violations of rights of publicity, rather than copyright, according to sources at all three majors. Unlike the DMCA, however, this arrangement appears to be voluntary. Citing rights of publicity can be more complicated than copyright, because they are matters of state law in the U.S., backed by limited legal precedent.

Source: Major Labels to Send ‘Takedown Notices’ to Streaming Services for AI Soundalikes

Maria Schneider’s lawsuit against YouTube alleges several types of mass copyright infringement and repeat infringer failures. The trial begins next month, with proposed jury instructions already running to 243 pages. YouTube believes it will win, but the stakes are rarely this high. In addition to damages, the plaintiffs want YouTube to disclose details of files that remain on the site after identical copies were removed due to DMCA notices. And that’s not all.

Source: Major YouTube Copyright Lawsuit Nears Trial With Almost Everything On the Line * TorrentFreak