Licensing

Apple Proposes Simplified Statutory Licensing Scheme to D.C.

Apple has submitted a preliminary proposal to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board to simplify the way music-streaming companies pay songwriters and publishers — in a way that could make it more expensive for rivals like Spotify and YouTube to keep offering free streaming.

Right now, streaming companies pay songwriters and publishers between 10.5 percent and 12 percent of their overall revenue, according to a complicated formula. (Labels and other owners of recording copyrights negotiate their own terms.) The money is divided into public performance and mechanical royalties, then paid to collecting societies and publishers.

Source: Apple Proposes Simplified Statutory Licensing Scheme to D.C. | Billboard

This deal will change everything for the music business in Russia

In recent months Russia’s once sin-binned social network, vKontakte, has inked licensing deals with Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, in part to power a new mobile subscription streaming app.

Today, bringing to a close a two-year lawsuit against VK, Universal has announced that it’s done the same. The major has reached a settlement with VK parent Mail.ru and licensed its social media platforms – VK, Odnoklassniki and My World – for future use of video and audio content from UMG artists like Taylor Swift.

Source: This deal will change everything for the music business in Russia – Music Business Worldwide

ASCAP, BMI Pump Up Volume In Consent Decree Fight. 

As the Department of Justice winds down its review of the consent decrees governing ASCAP and BMI without recommending any changes—to the cheers of broadcasters—the performance rights organizations are signaling they aren’t ready to give up their battle to have the guidelines updated.

“While the DOJ has expressed their views, this is not the final outcome of this process,” ASCAP chief executive Elizabeth Matthews says. “ASCAP strongly disagrees with the DOJ’s position, and we are carefully considering all of our options, including potential legislative and legal remedies,” she writes in a note to her company’s songwriters.

Source: ASCAP, BMI Pump Up Volume In Consent Decree Fight. | | insideradio.com

Department Of Justice To Deny Consent Decree Amendment 

The U.S. Department of Justice struck a major blow Wednesday to U.S. music publishers and performing rights organizations.

A nearly two-year process to amend the consent decree so that music publishers would have the right to withdraw digital licensing from the blanket licenses offered by ASCAP and BMI — the two performing rights organizations operating under a DOJ consent decree since 1941 — has ended with no changes to the consent degree, much to the chagrin of major publishers like Sony/ATV, Universal Music Publishing Group and BMG.

Source: Department Of Justice To Deny Consent Decree Amendment | Billboard

U.S. Copyright Office Clears Path for Digital Compulsory Licenses 

Until recently, NOIs had to be filed manually, by paper and under a prohibitive pricing structure. So if you started a service and had the publishing data for say 5 million songs, but did not have the information for another 500,000 songs, the service would need to file NOIs, saying it is licensing and using those songs with the Copyright Office. That process would cost $75 to register for the filing of all those songs, and $2 a song, or about $1 million. Also, the NOI for each song would need to be filed individually, although they could all be batch delivered to the Copyright Office.

But about two months ago, the Copyright Office revamped the way it is willing to accept NOIs and changed its pricing structure. Now, NOIs can be filed on excel spreadsheets, with something like 20 columns of relevant data needed to be completed for each song. This electronic filing still requires an upfront fee of $75 but it now only costs 10 cents a track. So now, filing NOIs for 500,00 songs will only cost $50,075, instead of $1.000075 million.

Source: U.S. Copyright Office Clears Path for Digital Compulsory Licenses | Billboard

Entertainment One signs global publishing admin deal with ole 

Global independent studio and music company Entertainment One (eOne) has signed a worldwide administration deal with ole – which is now dubbing itself ‘the world’s fastest growing independent rights management company’.

Under the partnership, ole will manage and administer eOne’s publishing catalogue, which contains commercial music, and music from film and television productions.

Source: Entertainment One signs global publishing admin deal with ole – Music Business Worldwide

MPAA Boss: Europe’s Geo Unblocking Plans Threaten Movie Industry 

chris_doddIn a keynote address at the CineEurope convention this week, MPAA Chairman and CEO Chris Dodd described the unblocking goals as a threat to the movie industry. Encouraging participants to reach out to their representatives, Dodd described the concerns as “real, very real.”

“While the stated goals of these proposals are laudable – offering greater choice to European consumers and strengthening cultural diversity – in reality, these ideas could actually cause great harm to Europe’s film industries and its consumers,” Dodd said. “What particularly concern me are proposals that would threaten the practices of territorial licensing and contractual freedom. These practices have long served as the financial bedrock of Europe’s film industries.”

Source: MPAA Boss: Europe’s Geo Unblocking Plans Threaten Movie Industry – TorrentFreak

NCTA Pitches ‘Ditch the Box’ Set-Top Proposal 

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and other parties opposed to the FCC’s “unlock the box” set-top proposal are pitching a compromise “ditch the box” (#ditchthebox) alternative they say “combines enforceable obligations and open standards, which are centerpieces of the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, with the market-driven apps solutions preferred by critics of the FCC’s proposed mandate.”

They said after talks with ISPS about how to achieve the FCC end of a competitive market, they hit on an alternative based on enforcing an industry-wide commitment–“binding, enforceable obligations” to “develop and deploy video ‘apps’ that all large MVPDs would build to open HTML5 web standards,” which they say would benefit consumers and commercial rights.

Source: NCTA Pitches ‘Ditch the Box’ Set-Top Proposal | Multichannel

Copyright Clearance Center Announces Enhancements to RightFind Content Workflow Solution

Copyright-Clearance-CenterCopyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), a global licensing and content solutions organization, has announced enhancements to its cloud-based RightFind™ content workflow solution that offers immediate, easy access to a full range of Scientific, Technical, and Medical (STM) content.

“We’ve worked closely with customers around the globe to make sure we’re delivering comprehensive solutions that accelerate scientific research,” said Lauren Tulloch, Director, Corporate Products and Services, CCC. “These new enhancements bring content directly into researchers’ workflow without interruption.”

 

Source: Copyright Clearance Center Announces Enhancements to RightFind™ Content Workflow Solution – Copyright Clearance Center

Google wanted to buy Michael Jackson’s $750m stake in Sony/ATV 

For many in the music business, the repercussions of Google being allowed to get near a 50% stake Sony/ATV would be deeply worrying. Sony/ATV manages 4m music copyrights written by the likes of The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, James Brown, Elvis Presley, Lauryn Hill, Oasis and Eminem.

Remember that those 4m copyrights are spread through countless recordings and, therefore, master rights deals with labels. That would have been the first headache for the likes of Universal Music Group.

Source: Google wanted to buy Michael Jackson’s $750m stake in Sony/ATV – Music Business Worldwide

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