Groups representing songwriters, publishers and music streaming services have released their entire “Phonorecords IV” settlement, which will set the parameters for royalties covering 2023-2027. Additional details in the full settlement include stipulations for advertising and sponsorship deductions, family plans, and music bundles.
Source: Songwriter Streaming Royalty Rate Settlement Released to Public in Full
After seeing 30% more engagement with Reels on both Instagram and Facebook in the second quarter, parent company Meta is now offering royalty-free music for advertisers to use in Reel ads. Advertisers can pick out a song from Meta’s library or let the app select a track that best fits an a based on its content. They can also let Meta’s Ads Manager automatically choose the best track for an ad according to its content.
Source: Meta offers royalty-free music library to Instagram Reels advertisers
Pornhub has discovered the ‘holy grail’ to combat piracy on user-generated content sites. This remarkable achievement is exemplified by a historic 98% drop in DMCA removals. All that it took was the mandatory verification of uploaders’ identities. An impressive result that won’t go unnoticed by some of the largest media companies in the world.
Source: Pornhub Sees DMCA Notices Vanish After Enabling Uploader Verification * TorrentFreak
Songwriter organizations are demanding transparency into the precise terms of the Phonorecords IV settlement that was announced in August. Songwriters Guild of America president and MCNA officer Rick Carnes and Society of Composers & Lyricists president and MCNA co-chair Ashley Irwin just recently issued the call for transparency in a letter to the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).
Source: Music Creators North America Demands Phonorecords IV Clarity
In a coordinated call to action, more than 100 rightsholders and organizations spanning sports and other live entertainment are demanding action from the European Union to end live piracy – now. They want new legislation that will guarantee the swift removal and blocking of illegal streams. The signs suggest that intermediaries – not actual pirates – will be the targets.
Source: End Live Piracy Now: Massive Coalition Demands Immediate EU Action * TorrentFreak
The startup’s Session studio platform enables songwriters/producers to assign credit to multiple creators in the studio via its ‘Creator Credits’ system – and to set the splits of royalties each of these creators will receive in future. After creating a free Session Studio account, SoundCloud artists can now go into their Session Studio profile and ‘connect’ it securely to their SoundCloud account by entering their normal credentials.
The authors said in the open letter, organized by digital-rights advocacy group Fight for the Future, that publishers and their trade groups are “undermining the traditional rights of libraries to own and preserve books, intimidating libraries with lawsuits, and smearing librarians.” The letter said the authors were “disheartened by the recent attacks against libraries being made in our name.”
Source: Author coalition blasts publishers in legal fight with Internet Archive
The music industry is doing all it can to get rid of its YouTube ripping problem. The RIAA and BPI, for example, regularly send DMCA anti-circumvention notices to Google, asking the company to remove sites from its search results. In recent months the independent label “Because Music” also joined in the action, overpowering both music industry groups in the process.
Source: Indie Record Label Leads Crackdown on YouTube Downloaders * TorrentFreak
Facebook parent company Meta is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Sweden-headquartered royalty-free soundtrack provider Epidemic Sound about two months ago over the alleged copyright infringement. Epidemic Sound, which owns a catalog of about 35,000 royalty-free tracks and 90,000 sound effects, sued Meta in July, alleging that the social media giant “knowingly, intentionally and brazenly” stole music created by hundreds of musicians, songwriters, producers and vocalists.
Source: Facebook parent Meta asks court to dismiss Epidemic Sound’s $142m lawsuit
Back in the early 1990s, when hip-hop artists were struggling to legitimize sampling, music industry executives tried to fit a square peg in a round hole by applying existing licensing criteria and terminology to a new field that they considered a “fad.” Of course, sampling only grew more popular, and eventually, a new licensing framework was created to accommodate it. Currently, we are having the same problem with Web3.
Source: Music in the Metaverse: Redefining music rights in the Web3 world