Month: March 2026

Chris Cooke: SoundExchange boss says all EU countries must change copyright rules so European radio royalties flow to American performers #IRespectMusic

Ireland Leads the Way: A Step Toward Fair Radio Royalties for American Artists in Europe

For years, American artists have been told that the global royalty system is just “complicated”—a patchwork of treaties, local rules, and reciprocal deals that somehow always seem to leave U.S. performers on the short end of the stick. But as this new report highlighted by CMU makes clear, what’s really at issue isn’t complexity. It’s discrimination dressed up as policy.

At the center of the debate is a simple principle: national treatment—the idea that countries should pay foreign creators the same royalties they pay their own. That principle is already embedded in international law and reinforced by recent European court decisions. And yet, across much of Europe, American performers still don’t get paid when their recordings are played on terrestrial radio, even while European artists are paid at home and abroad.

Now, SoundExchange is turning up the pressure, arguing that every EU member state must finally align its laws with that principle and unlock hundreds of millions in unpaid royalties.

This is exactly what our friend Blake Morgan and the #IRespectMusic campaign have been fighting for over the past decade—fair pay for performers wherever their music is used. And it’s another reminder that we join with the MusicFirst Coalition in demanding that the U.S. should lead by example: passing the American Music Fairness Act would strengthen hand of America’s creators globally and help ensure U.S. artists are paid both at home and abroad.

This isn’t just a technical copyright dispute. It’s a global trade and fairness issue—one that goes directly to how countries value music as an export, and whether creators are treated as partners in that economy or just inputs to be exploited.

Read Chris Cooke’s excellent explainer in Complete Music Update

The boss of US collecting society SoundExchange has welcomed a change to Irish copyright law which means radio royalties collected in Ireland can now flow to American performers when their music gets airplay in the country. Even though no radio royalties flow in the other direction to European performers, because radio stations in the US don’t have to pay any money to any artists or labels. 

That change to Irish law was the result of a ruling in the European Union courts which, SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe insists, also obligates other EU countries to implement similar changes, so that more radio royalties flow to the US. “Implementation isn’t optional – it’s a legal obligation”, Huppe says, adding, “creators everywhere deserve to be paid when their music is used, no matter their nationality”. 

by Trichordist

California Takes a Step Toward Ending Speculative Ticketing

One of the most frustrating tricks in the ticket resale business is something called speculative ticketing. That’s when someone lists a ticket for sale before they actually have the ticket. We’ve discussed the problem many times, but Kid Rock brought it to a head recently during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

If you haven’t run across spec ticking before, here it is: The seller is essentially betting they will be able to obtain the ticket later. If they succeed, they deliver the ticket to the buyer. If they don’t, the buyer often ends up with a refund—or a replacement ticket of uncertain quality—instead of the seat they thought they purchased.

For fans and artists, the bigger problem is what speculative listings do to the market before the onsale even begins.

When fans check resale marketplaces and see hundreds of tickets already listed—often at inflated prices—it creates the impression that tickets are already scarce or sold out. That perception alone can push fans to panic-buy at higher prices, even when the actual ticket inventory hasn’t even been released yet.

In other words, speculative listings can make the market look hotter and tighter than it really is.

Ironically, most of the major resale platforms already say this practice is prohibited on their service. Their terms of service typically ban selling tickets that the seller does not actually possess.

Yet those same marketplaces often display large numbers of listings that appear to be exactly that: tickets offered for sale before the seller could reasonably have them in hand.

California is now attempting to address this problem directly. A new proposal would make it clear that selling tickets you do not possess—or do not have the legal right to sell—is a deceptive practice under consumer protection law. It would also allow state and local authorities to enforce those rules, rather than leaving fans to fight the battle on their own.

That proposal is California Assembly Bill 1349 (AB 1349).

AB 1349 aims to close the gap between what resale platforms claim to prohibit and what actually happens in the marketplace. The basic principle is simple: if a ticket is listed for sale, it should be a real ticket controlled by the seller, not a speculative promise that may or may not be fulfilled later.

The bill will not fix every problem in the ticketing ecosystem. But it represents an important step toward restoring a basic level of honesty to the resale market. After all, if the platforms themselves say you shouldn’t sell a ticket you don’t have, putting that rule into law should not be controversial.

For artists and fans alike, the idea behind AB 1349 comes down to something pretty straightforward:

You shouldn’t be able to sell a ticket you don’t actually own.

by Trichordist