According to Billboard Wednesday June 8th the National Music Publishers Association announced an agreement with two of the three major labels to hold mechanical royalty rates at 9.1 cents until 2022.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7400362/universal-music-warner-music-nmpa-settlement-mechanical-sales-rate

While this may not seem like a big deal, it is. If you take into account inflation this amounts to somewhere between a 6% and 12% cut for songwriters based on a range of predicted inflation.   More than any other group in the music industry, songwriters have seen their revenue streams decimated during the transition to digital. Much of the blame for the reduction in revenue can be laid at the feet of the so-called “grown-ups” in the music industry. Time after time, the major rights holders and trade groups have agreed to deals that effectively make the pie smaller for songwriters.

Meanwhile I don’t see any of the executives taking pay cuts.

Further as part of the NMPA settlement WMG and UMG have agreed to sit out the upcoming Copyright Royalty Board hearings. Early it was announced that the two groups that represent “independents”  Merlin and A2IM will also sit out the proceedings. This leaves underpaid songwriters to fend for themselves at the CRB hearings against Rhapsody, SoundCloud, Spotify, Pandora, Omniphone, Google, Deezer, Apple, Amazon and the Digital Media Assn.

On top of this NMPA has now established a precedent that will allow streaming services to argue to the CRB that streaming mechanicals should be cut.

It’s time that songwriters hold David Israelite, the NMPA, A2IM and Merlin accountable for their actions. (Remember Merlin cut the deal with Pandora that ended up being evidence for the CRB ruling that cut rightsholders pay on non-interactive a billion dollars over 4 years see here: https://thetrichordist.com/2016/03/16/billboard-finally-agrees-the-pandora-merlin-deal-will-cost-rights-holders-a-billion-dollars-in-soundexchange-royalties/)

Is the Trichordist the only entity looking out for the interests of songwriters? And how the fuck did that happen?

 

Irving Azoff’s keynote at NMPA annual meeting highlights unity: “The music industry has never been more powerful and popular and we as an industry have never done a shittier job of rallying together as one industry,” Azoff said. “We should work together to solve the root of the problem” — fair compensation.

via @edchristman: @IrvingAzoff Calls on Music Industry to ‘Work Together’ — Artist Rights Watch

The audit clause in Pandora’s new publishing license takes a sharp turn away from their positions in Web IV which not only is great news for songwriters and publishers, but also gives artists and sound recording owners a strong benchmark for the appeal of Web IV. via Pandora Sees the Light On Audit Rights — Music Tech […]

via Pandora Sees the Light On Audit Rights — Music Tech Solutions — MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY

This is a screenshot form earlier today.  YouTube hosts dozens of videos like these advertising the illegal sale of the Prince killing drug Fentanyl. Mississippi Attorney General Hood is right on YouTube:  They continue to enable advertising for illegal drug trafficking. 

Just saw this on MTP:

Google Facilitates the Sale of the Drug that Killed Prince
Songwriters  and performers have a legal rights to choose with whom they do business.  If I don’t like Coors I don’t have to license my music for their commercials.  If I you don’t like the particular views of a political candidate you don’t have to let them use your music.

Well, what about a company that hosts advertisements for illegal sales of drugs,  hate rock videos,  terrorist recruitment videos and thousands of other abominations.   Artists don’t want to support a business like this do they?

Well, because YouTube abuses the DMCA takedown process, and interprets it as a game of “Whack-a-mole”  there is no practical way to keep your music off of YouTube.   We are forced to go into business with a deeply amoral company?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We have carefully documented over the years all the nasty crap Google/YouTube hosts:

https://thetrichordist.com/2014/11/17/do-you-want-your-music-alongside-hate-rock-videos/

https://thetrichordist.com/2015/07/16/advertisers-how-is-youtube-any-different-than-reddit/

https://thetrichordist.com/2014/04/15/youtube-still-serving-ads-on-hate-rock-videos/

Other news outlets have reported on YouTube hosting  ISIS and Jihadi recruitment videos and serving advertising.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/ads-shown-isis-videos-youtube-catch-companies-guard-n320946

http://abcnews.go.com/ABCNews/political-ads-youtube-videos-isis-scams-drugs-report/story?id=38041543

http://money.cnn.com/2015/03/03/technology/isis-ads-youtube/

https://musictechpolicy.com/2014/02/23/eyesight-for-the-willfully-blind-part-1-youtube-jailbait-and-bangin-up-the-femoral-vein/

We have also questioned the ethics of participating in YouTube hosted events like YouTube Music Awards. 

https://thetrichordist.com/2013/11/07/ytma-artists-can-help-clean-up-youtube-an-open-letter-to-jason-schwartzman-lady-gaga-spike-jonze-m-i-a-arcade-fire-and-macklemore/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big Silicon Valley company and their big Silicon Valley law firm are suing independent photographer Kalliope Amorphous for having the temerity to tell them to stop stealing her photographs.

via @KAmorphous: Support a Photographer Being Sued By Flipboard and Google’s Law Firm — Artist Rights Watch

SoundExchange is appealing the “Web IV” decision by the Copyright Royalty Board. The Web IV decision handed a huge victory to Pandora and iHeart Media by manipulating contract terms into industry-wide rates while ignoring the payola terms of those contracts. Then the Copyright Royalty Board froze artist royalties at those absurd rates for five years.

via @SoundExchange to Appeal Web IV Ruling — Artist Rights Watch

And who works for the Chairman of the F.C.C.? Counselor to the Chairman, Federal Communications Commission: Gigi Sohn, formerly CEO of Google Shill Lister Public Knowledge. Special Assistant to Chairman, Federal Communications Commission: Sagar Doshi (Google Product Specialist) THE cable set-top box — a clunky technology from a bygone era that costs many consumers around […]

via Jonathan Kanter: Don’t Hand Our TVs Over to Google — Artist Rights Watch

A thoughtful response to David Pakman (call sign “One Trick Pony”) by Jim McDermott. David’s post is “The Music Industry Buried More Than 150 Startups” which is something of a summary of David’s various public statements and Congressional testimony over the last 10 years or so. David you’re one of the smartest guys on the block, and […]

via @thetrickness: Most Music Tech Startups Don’t Know Shit About How Labels Work – A Response To David Pakman — Artist Rights Watch

Last night I posted this

https://thetrichordist.com/2016/05/26/songwriter-would-need-288-million-spins-to-equal-average-spotify-employee-salary/

It has since gone viral.   It has also produced a remarkable display of ignorance on the part of many defending Spotify.

Not to single out this one person but it illustrates how little tech types know about the compulsory licenses and government set pricing schemes that subsidize these platforms.

Nice.  A little classic brogrammer master-of-the-universe arrogance thrown in.  I guess those songs just magically appear on those platforms.

Except that there is no supply and demand for songs.  In order to “spur innovation” the federal government provided a compulsory license that allows streaming services to use our songs at a below market rate fixed by the Copyright Royalty Board.  You can’t even get your songs off these services.  Well that’s not always true.   If you threaten to file a class action lawsuit for failing to pay the already abysmal royalty rate (among other things) then they will take your songs off the service.  See below:

Amidst Serious Accusations, Spotify Removes Victory Records’ Catalog

But the ignorance continues.

ALL the platforms mentioned, MTV, Radio and Labels also enjoy either a federal compulsory license or below market rates set by a single federal judge (see ASCAP/BMI rate court).   Songwriters are forced by the federal government to subsidize all of these platforms since 1909, when the federal government mandated songwriters license their songs for mechanical reproduction at 2 cents a copy to “spur innovation”  of record labels and player piano rolls.

Every one of these supposedly “innovative” platforms is essentially suckling at the breast of the federal government.

So lets have a poll