Category: Copyright Policy

Copyright Policy Discussions

UNSOUND @SXSW Meet Filmmaker Mikael (Count) Eldridge #SXSW

Filmmaker, producer and musician Mikael (Count) Eldridge will be speaking at SXSW Monday about new tech, start ups, and the impact on creators.

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_OE02908

Monday, March 10  | 2:00PM – 3:00PM
Austin Convention Center | Next Stage EH 3/4
500 E Cesar Chavez St

From the forthcoming documentary Unsound: Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records founder Brett Gurewitz talks about how large tech corporations make millions of dollars selling advertising- essentially making people the product, without them even realizing. The promise of free or cheap music is often used to draw eyeballs to websites, apps, and social networking platforms, allowing corporations to make large amounts of money from advertising. The public is generally unaware and happy to have free/cheap music, corporations make tons of money from advertising, but how is the musician benefiting from this?

LEARN MORE HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/unsoundthemovie

Unsound uncovers the dramatic collapse of the music industry and its impact on musicians and creators of all kinds trying to survive in the ‘age of free’.

RELATED:

“Zoe Keating on How Big Business Wins…”| UNSOUND Little Cast

by Trichordist Editor

What ASCAP Members Need to Know About the Songwriter Equity Act and What You Can Do | ASCAP

Songwriters, composers and music publishers earn royalty income through two separate rights: the right to publicly perform their music works, and the right to make reproductions of those works and distribute those reproductions.

However, two outdated portions of the Copyright Act, Section 114(i) and Section 115, prevent songwriters and composers from receiving royalty rates that reflect fair market value for the use of their intellectual property. This has created inequity in the marketplace that harms America’s songwriters, composers and music publishers in the digital age. Now is the time to fix it.

READ THE FULL POST AT ASCAP:
http://www.ascap.com/playback/2014/02/action/songwriter-equity-act.aspx

by Trichordist Editor

Homegrown Music: The Challenges Of Running A Record Label in D.C. | DC Music Download

“I don’t think people understand the idea that music is someone else’s property because it’s just in digital bits,” Feigenbaum says. “It’s intangible. People who feel music has no value and want to steal from you will steal from you. It’s so ubiquitous—it’s so easy”.

“I have people come up to me and tell me how much they love what I do, and I’ll be like, ‘That’s great, where do you buy it?’” notes Feigenbaum. “And you can see they weren’t expecting that and they start to stammer. It’s like, ‘You’re not helping me. You’re not a fan-you’re a leech.’”

“I could go on and on about the things I don’t like about iTunes,” he says, “But they do pay. It’s not my favorite business model, but I get paid from them.” Spotify, however, is another matter.

“They don’t pay shit,” he says. “The only people who make money off of Spotify is Spotify. We were getting thousands of listens on Spotify, which added up to literally one and a quarter pennies. So we opted out.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT DC MUSIC DOWNLOAD:
http://dcmusicdownload.com/2014/02/12/homegrown-music-the-challenges-of-running-a-record-label-in-d-c/

by trichordist

The Tyranny of Legality | The Cynical Musician

Music piracy is a subject that has been talked to death over the past decade. So much, in fact, that it seems scarce conceivable that we could say anything more of interest on the subject.

The fundamental point I’d like you to take away from this is: it’s a lot more important to keep a watchful eye on ostensibly legal services – recall that both Pandora and (perhaps to a lesser extent) YouTube are legit – than to agonize over overt piracy.

That pirate services should be hunted to as close to extinction as is feasible goes without saying, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that nobody deserves a medal for going legit. It’s what you’re f-ing supposed to do.

READ THE FULL POST AT THE CYNICAL MUSICIAN:
http://thecynicalmusician.com/2014/01/the-tyranny-of-legality/

by Trichordist Editor

GEMA wins against YouTube In Germany on “Blocking Screens” | Media Biz

A German court found that YouTube has to stop misleading the public by blocking certain content and publicly shaming GEMA for it (the German association of composers, lyricists and music publishers.) A first step in the right direction.

Heker referred to the decision as “an important and positive signal to the music authors,” because: “It is not the GEMA, which prevents music on the internet you only want to license YouTube, like all other music portals..” Heker sweeps out: “Our concern is that the authors participate in the economic exploitation of their works and can earn their livelihood in the future.”

READ THE FULL POST MEDIA BIZ (GERMAN):
http://www.mediabiz.de/musik/news/gema-feiert-im-streit-um-sperrtafeln-erfolg-gegen-youtube/344107?Nnr=344107&NL=MWBlitz&uid=8514

IN ENGLISH VIA GOOGLE TRANSLATE:
http://bit.ly/1gzOCkT

by trichordist

Musicians Sing for a Cause That’s Their Own | The New York Times

In the latest example, a group of artists including David Byrne, Mike Mills of R.E.M., John McCrea of Cake and the guitarist Marc Ribot are putting on a free concert on Tuesday at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village to protest the way radio stations pay royalties, and to introduce a new advocacy group, the Content Creators Coalition.

“This is possible now because musicians and artists are fed up,” said Mr. Ribot, who is renowned for his work with musicians including Tom Waits, another coalition member. “It takes a lot to get a musician to go to a meeting, serve on a committee. It’s not what we do; we play music. But the way things are now, many of us feel that our backs are to the wall.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE NEW YORK TIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/arts/music/musicians-sing-for-a-cause-thats-their-own.html?_r=1

by trichordist

How You’re Murdering the Music Industry. | unEARTH Music Hub

Oddly, few people are talking about how much money they are actually making through Spotify, but it’s estimated that the average play is worth an abysmal $0.005. That’s half a cent…if you’re getting anything at all. An artist needs to rack up 200 plays to make $1. How are we letting this happen?! Is the general population truly oblivious to the tremendous effort and cost involved in making music?

Surprise! Songs don’t just pop out of artists like perfectly polished Easter eggs. These creative humans have dedicated a large amount of their time, money and soul to create a tangible piece of art for your listening pleasure. Studio time is expensive! Rehearsal space is expensive! Gas is expensive! Instruments are expensive! Craft beer is expensive!!! Strike that last one.

But seriously guys, when you buy music, you’re not just paying for a song, you’re supporting the artist and the process.

READ THE FULL STORY AT unEARTH MUSIC Hub:
http://unearthmusichub.com/articles/streaming-music/

by Trichordist Editor

Proposal for Compulsory Remix License Has Foes in Steven Tyler and Attorney Dina LaPolt | Billboard

Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler and music attorney Dina LaPolt have sent a letter to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office opposing the creation of a compulsory license that would allow anyone to legally create remixes and derivative works, without getting songwriter permission.

For example, in 1986 Run-D.M.C recorded a version of Aersmith’s “Walk This Way.” As a cover it could have requested a compulsory mechanical license to create their version. But instead Run DMC involved Tyler and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, who authored the song, in the process to create “one of the most famous derivative works of our modern times.”

“A compulsory license for remixes, mash-ups and sampling is a step too far,” they argued in their letter, which was provided to Billboard. “Approval is the most important right that a recording artist or songwriter has and they need to retain the ability to approve how their works are used… The current system does not need reform.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT BILLBOARD:
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/5901155/proposal-for-compulsory-remix-license-has-foes-in

by Trichordist Editor

New Report Says How Much Advertising Is Going to Piracy Sites | ADWEEK

Piracy is not only a threat to the content creators whose material is being stolen but the reputations of the advertisers whose brands appear on the sites and the credibility of the digital advertising ecosystem, says the report, titled “Good Money Gone Bad: Digital Thieves and the Hijacking of the Online Ad Business.”

…

The report lists the sites it studied as well as the dozens of blue-chip advertisers whose ads were seen on the offending sites, including AT&T, Lego and Toyota.

“The reality of it is, this is a big business,” said Wenda Harris Millard, president and COO of MediaLink. “I think people thought it was a cottage industry.

READ THE FULL STORY AT ADWEEK:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/new-report-says-how-much-advertising-going-piracy-sites-155770

RELATED:

Google, Advertising, Money and Piracy. A History of Wrongdoing Exposed.

Over 50 Major Brands Supporting Music Piracy, It’s Big Business!

Report links Google, Yahoo to Internet piracy sites | LA Times

by Trichordist Editor

Pandora Suit May Upend Century-Old Royalty Plan | NY Times

After federal antitrust investigations, both groups agreed to government supervision in 1941.

This system has hummed along for decades. But with the rise of Internet radio, publishers have complained that the rules are antiquated and unfair. They point to the disparity in the way Pandora compensates the two sides of the music business: Last year, Pandora paid 49 percent of its revenue, or about $313 million, to record companies, but only 4 percent, or about $26 million, to publishers.

“It’s a godawful system that just doesn’t work,” said Martin N. Bandier, the chairman of Sony/ATV, the world’s largest music publisher.

The wider music world has been galvanized by the issue of low royalties from fast-growing streaming companies.

For songwriters, Ascap and BMI have also been among the most reliable institutions in the music industry, and few want to see them go. But Rick Carnes, a Nashville songwriter and president of the Songwriters Guild of America, said that while these organizations had served him and his colleagues well, the Justice Department agreements that govern them were outdated and must be changed.

“This is a horse-and-buggy consent decree in a digital environment,” Mr. Carnes said. “There’s no way that works now.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE NEW YORK TIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/business/media/pandora-suit-may-upend-century-old-royalty-plan.html?

by trichordist