Rights

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

When Kobalt was bought by Francisco Partners last September, the disruptive innovator known for its publishing administration clients like Karol G, Phoebe Bridgers and Max Martin said that a primary goal of this next chapter would be growing its little known and even less understood global digital rights collections society for compositions, the American Music Rights Association.

Source: Kobalt’s ‘Unpolished Gem’ Has Come to Collect — Inside AMRA’s Aggressive Growth Plan

The UK music licensing company PPL has announced that it generated revenues of GBP £272.6 million (USD $336m) in 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. That marked the highest level of revenue in the company’s 89-year history. PPL paid 165,000 musicians and recorded music rightsholders in 2022, another record high. That membership figure represented an increase of 12.6% YoY, up from 146,000 in 2021.

Source: Revenues at UK licensing org, PPL, hit record high in 2022, up 7.8% to £272.6m

Music represented by the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) is returning to Meta-owned platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp following a new agreement signed with the technology giant. The deal is seen as a victory for SIAE, the main collecting society for tens of thousands of songwriters in Italy. The move comes after a temporary suspension of SIAE’s music on Meta’s platforms due to the parties’ failure to renew a licensing deal earlier this year.

Source: Music by Italian songwriters returns to Facebook and Instagram after ‘transitional’ deal with Meta