Photo courtesy @amyraasch

What a great way to start Grammy Week!  Last night Adam Dorn, Karoline Kramer Gould, David Lowery and Blake Morgan came together to tell their personal stories and they let me moderate.  Each of them has an inspiring story of how they came to their personal epiphany, their inspiration to turn to advocacy as part of their lives.

And in case it wasn’t clear–we were recruiting!  Follow them on Twitter through the ‪#‎irespectmusic‬ and @theblakemorgan, @radioclevekkg @davidclowery @moceanworker and @musictechpolicy.

The following are my introductory remarks to the panel:

Successful advocacy sits on a three legged stool whether we like it or not—lobbyists, campaign contributions and individual action.  The music industry and the larger entertainment industry has largely failed to achieve successful advocacy.  We still have essentially the same problems today that we had 15 years ago and the industry is at least half its former…

Blake Morgan took the #irespectmusic campaign to Capitol Hill again last week, this time in support of the Songwriter Equity Act (bill numbers HR 1283 and S662) with staff in the U.S. Senate.  His meetings included his own New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gellibrand.

One of the cornerstone principles of the #irespectmusic campaign is to support the ideal of fair treatment for all creators and is not limited to specific legislation.  Here’s an example.  Principle: Artist pay for radio play.  Bill: Fair Play, Fair Pay.  Principle:  Songwriters should be fairly compensated.  Bill: Songwriter Equity Act.

Blake’s trip to Washington coincided with the second anniversary of the #irespectmusic petition.  The movement is now in its second session of Congress–it started in the second year of the last session (the 113th) and is now working on the current session of Congress (the 114th).

Blake wrote this insightful post that…

“D” is for “desperate.”  And “debt.”  According to the Wall Street Journal:

Swedish music-streaming company Spotify AB has scheduled a series of investor meetings in an effort to raise about half a billion dollars through a convertible bond issue, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Spotify is eager to have financial firepower at hand should consolidation opportunities arise in the industry, according to the person. The issue won’t necessarily be a prelude to a stock-market listing of the privately held company, the person said.

The Financial Times tell us:

Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, which first reported the planned funding round, said that the loans would pay an annual interest rate of 4 per cent. In addition, they would convert into equity at a 17.5 per cent discount to Spotify’s share price if the company goes public in the next year.

This financial structure would guarantee lenders hefty…

Blake Morgan posted this on his Facebook page today:

So…today is the day. For the first time, I’ll be bringing the #IRespectMusic campaign to the United States Senate. Over the next two days, I’ll be in Senate offices for discussions on fair market value specifically for American songwriters. The Songwriter Equity Act, like the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, is a crucial piece of legislation supported by both parties that American music makers want, need, and deserve. #IRespectMusic began as a spontaneous online grassroots uprising, and now look at where we’ve brought it, together. I’m saddled up. Game on.

Once again, Blake demonstrates the power of grassroots!  We’ll keep you posted on his journey.

If you’re going to be in Los Angeles for Grammy Week, don’t forget that the California Copyright Conference is hosting a panel on #irespectmusic on February 9, click here for details.

The California Copyright Conference will be hosting a panel entitled “The I Respect Music Campaign and the New Grassroots Artist Rights Advocacy” on February 9 from 6-9:30ish at the Sportsman’s Lodge in Los Angeles.  We will be having a wonderful group of panelists in Adam Dorn pka Mocean Worker, Karoline Kramer-Gould, David Lowery and Blake Morgan.

CCC Members and College Students $45 per person | Non-members $55 per person
Students must show College ID at the door, if paying at the member rate

Click here for details and reservations!

The I Respect Music Campaign and the New Grassroots Artist Rights Advocacy

Kiss me once, then once more.
What a dunce I was before.
How long has this been going on?

From How Long Has This Been Going On?
Music by George Gershwin, Lyric by Ira Gershwin from Funny Face

If you have been following the separate class actions for songwriter royalties brought against Spotify by David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick, a question might have occurred to you as it has to me:  How long has Spotify known about its songwriter royalty problem?

Given reports that as much 25% of Spotify’s music offering is unlicensed, surely this didn’t happen the week before the first class action was filed.  That’s millions of songs and that kind of mistake takes some time to get to scale.

Thinking back, I remembered the meetings that Spotify hosted in October 2014 as part of its artist outreach campaign.  Those meetings were held in New York, Nashville and…