Month: October 2015

Originally posted on Music Technology Policy:
The Wall Street Journal reports that the (largely) European streaming service Deezer has pulled its initial public offering float of shares on the Paris stock exchange.  Let me tell you, pulling an IPO is no small thing, particularly on the eve of registering the shares.  That’s the kind of…

Originally posted on Music Technology Policy:
You’ve probably heard a lot about the gut wrenching need for a “global rights database” because “music licensing is broken”.  It sounds like of like a political campaign advertisement, right? Music licensing is broken Let’s drain the swamp And protect the future for our children Let’s get something straight…

As the unlicensed unpaid song fiasco with Victory Records indicated last week, and as I illustrated with my own catalogue in July,  Spotify and other streaming services have a serious problem with unpaid and unlicensed songs. Estimates on the amount of unpaid royalties range from $50 – $150 million dollars.  A source just provided us… Continue reading Smoking Gun? Spotify “Accrued Fees To Copyright Holders” Now at 146 Million

Spotify’s $100 Million Problem Billboard magazine estimates that Spotify and other streaming services have as much as $100 million dollars in unpaid songwriter royalties and documents provided to us confirm that Spotify had more than $140 million in “unpaid fees to copyright owners” at the end of 2014.  While these kind of “unmatched” and unpaid balances are… Continue reading Turnabout is Fair Play: $100 Million Dollars in Unpaid/Unlicensed Spotify Songwriter Royalties Demands Investigation

In May of 2004 NY State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that he had settled with the major record labels to pay out $50 million dollars in unpaid royalties.   The action was driven by attorney Bob Donnelly.  As The NY Times reported at the time: Mr. Donnelly encouraged Mr. Spitzer to use New York… Continue reading NY State Abandoned Property Law and Spotify’s Unpaid Songwriter Royalties Crisis

Spotify has put quite an interesting  spin on its failure to license or pay on as much as 25% of the songs on its service. Quoting from the Wall Street Journal We want to pay every [fraction of a] penny, but we need to know who [sic] to pay,” Spotify spokesman Jonathan Prince said in… Continue reading Spotify Broke the Law on Songwriter Licenses, Therefore Rights Holders Have to Build another Database?

This is just a quick reminder for those of you keeping score.  The Berklee College Transparency Report got it wrong on streaming services.  The Berklee College of Music asserted that songwriter streaming royalties were getting lost in HFA. We asserted that the problem was likely at Spotify because Spotify is required by law to obtain licenses,… Continue reading Trichordist Right On Spotify Black Box, @BerkleeCollege Transparency Report Wrong

Everyone in the music industry is abuzz with the news that Spotify failed to license much of the Victory Records song catalogue. Spotify failed to pay royalties on these songs. After Victory Records went public Spotify pulled the entire catalogue Spotify spokesperson Jonathan Prince was quick to say this: “We want to pay every [fraction… Continue reading Spotify Has Apparently Failed to License, Account and Pay on More than 150 Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven Songs

Originally posted on Music Technology Policy:
You may have heard the rumor that Spotify is in the middle of renegotiations with the major label groups–that typically would include publishers.  If Spotify owed you a pile of money and wanted to extend your contract, wouldn’t you expect them to clean up any money they already owed…