ASCAP's Matthews and BMI's O'Neill

ASCAP's Matthews and BMI's O'Neill

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Database: ASCAP, BMI team on data transparency

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Also in this week's TechWatch: Creative Thread Foundation, Fusion TV, and Roku
Philip Merrill
Advocacy
Jul 31, 2017 - 10:00 am

Rounding up recent tech news that impacts livelihoods in the creative community …

ASCAP and BMI join forces and databases to improve transparency
On July 26, leading U.S. performers' rights organizations ASCAP and BMI announced a joint effort to mingle the data from their respective works databases so it can be comprehensively searched and updated online. Testing is in progress, with a phased roll out expected to begin late next year. The shared database is expected to be able to evolve with the addition of user-friendly improvements to interactivity, and there will be added data sets should other competitors choose to participate. BMI President/CEO Mike O'Neill said, "While BMI and ASCAP remain fierce competitors in all other regards, we recognize that our combined expertise allows us to create the best solution." Last month ASCAP and YouTube reached a separate data-sharing agreement, providing an example how relying on a works database for a solid foundation has the potential to assist accurate and timely compensation payouts. ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews said, "We believe in a free market with more industry cooperation and alignment on data issues."

Creative Thread Foundation launched to promote diversity among content creators
Also on July 26, Fusion TV and more than 60 partners announced the creation of the Creative Thread Foundation to break down barriers that prevent underrepresented voices from creating content. Partners include 21st Century Fox, Amazon, AT&T, CBS, CCIA, Disney, Interactive Advertising Bureau, NAACP, NAB, Nielsen, Pandora, Spotify, Univision and Viacom. Foundation chairman Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. said the partners will "share best practices amongst our members on recruiting and retaining talent, developing content, and driving awareness of under-representation in media and entertainment." While thinking big, the Creative Thread Foundation is positioned to drive change through the combined impact of many small actions, such as promoting mentorships or content distribution deals that "reflect the beautiful diversity of America."

Roku stick lands at No. 1 for connected TV devices
eMarketer published its 2016 statistics detailing U.S. viewership of internet-connected televisions and devices that plug into TV sets. More than 168 million people used connected TV last year, a growth rate of more than 10 percent. Although connected TV sets are the biggest and fastest-growing category overall, sorting results by brand put Roku ahead of its better-known competitors: Google, Amazon and Apple, respectively. More than 38 million U.S. consumers used their Roku at least once a month last year, accounting for more than 23 percent of connected-TV viewership, a growth rate of more than 19 percent. Caveats to the results include consumer ownership of multiple options, and Apple TV's higher price point. While this is good news for digital innovation and reach, Roku sticks can potentially be misused for content piracy, leading a Mexican court to block their sales in Mexico last month.

Take action now: Help The Recording Academy protect the rights of all music creators

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Thanksgiving: 4 Dinner-Friendly Music Advocacy Topics

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So, you want to talk politics this Thanksgiving? Learn how bipartisan harmony can reign over the dinner table when sticking to the topic of music creators' rights
Philip Merrill
Advocacy
Nov 22, 2017 - 12:16 pm

Here's something to think about as you sit down with family and friends this Thanksgiving: A Nov. 21 poll reveals most Americans hope to avoid talking about partisan politics in between helpings of turkey and all the fixings. 

Of course, there's nothing worse than an argument at the dinner table, let alone a holiday gathering. However, if you feel the need to get political, there is one issue that will keep you in the bipartisan-friendly zone: music creators' rights. 

With that in mind, here are four safe music-related conversation starters that you can feel safe bringing up as you pass the stuffing.

1. Did you know recording artists don't get paid for their music on the radio? 

Royalty calculations can get complicated but zero is simple, and that is exactly what recording artists in the U.S. receive in music royalties each time their music is played on the radio. "Terrestrial radio play in the United Kingdom, the Beatles or the Beach Boys or anybody gets a royalty; in the United States, they don't," was how Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) summed it up. He is just one of the many co-sponsors supporting H.R. 1836, the Fair Play Fair Pay Act of 2017, which is also designed to compensate the music creators "behind-the-scenes," including producers, background singers and vocalists.

2. Did you know that songwriter pay is still regulated by laws dating back to the 1940s? 

Performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI operate under Department of Justice consent decrees that began in 1941. The DOJ's recent review further complicated what was already an uncertain and willfully blind system. Digital streaming royalties could also be simplified if a uniform approach governed all forms of music distribution.

3. Did you know it's up to the artists and songwriters to police the internet for copyright violations of their own works?

Maria Schneider is a modern jazz great whose artistry is always front-and-center, unless she is busy playing Whack-A-Mole on the hunt for infringing copies of her work on the internet, as she has testified about before Congress on behalf of the Recording Academy. T Bone Burnett more recently addressed a video to the Copyright Office explaining how the legal "safe harbor" granted to internet hosts under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is broken for artists. Re-piracy of already identified works repopulating the internet after take downs is a huge problem. Better anti-piracy enforcement by ISPs and social platforms is certainly a part of the solution.

4. Did you know music producers are the only music creators without federal copyright protection?

Under U.S. copyright law, producers of audio recordings get zero mention. "As a lover of music and a self-proclaimed songwriter, I'm familiar with just how essential producers and engineers are to the music industry," said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) about H.R. 881, the Allocation for Music Producers or AMP Act. "Composing songs is a team effort, and our AMP Act will ensure that every music professional receives what he or she has earned." The producers of music recordings consistently bring sound compositions to life for artists across all genres. As true stakeholders in the creative process, producers deserve fair protection and acknowledgement.

A Powerful Tool For Music Creators: District Advocate

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Next Steps For PROs After BMI's Consent Decree Victory

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After time expired for an appeal of BMI's fractional licensing victory, new remarks from Justice Department antitrust chief have performing rights organizations looking ahead
Philip Merrill
Advocacy
Apr 5, 2018 - 10:10 am

Unlike the music business, competition between player-piano roll manufacturers or buggy whip makers has really died down. But one thing they all have in common is that their competitive marketplace is shaped and controlled by the same consent decrees with the Department of Justice.

"The way music is licensed has been governed by these consent decrees since 1941," said Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, who oversees the agency's antitrust division. "So 77 years of a consent decree, rates being set by a judge in rate court as opposed to free market competition … we are taking a look at that."

Speaking at Vanderbilt Law School on March 27, Delrahim described his department's present rate of progress, having reviewed two-thirds of the Justice Department's 1,300 consent decrees still in force.

"As public agencies we need to take a look and see if those consent decrees are still relevant in the marketplace," he said.

Delrahim wants to ensure that his agency's designated role enforcing U.S. laws is not sidetracked by becoming a mini-regulator or micromanager. Last month, the deadline for appeal expired on the DOJ's courtroom loss to BMI without action being taken, a hopeful sign the department is stepping back from that micromanager sideline. In line with such hopefulness, BMI President/CEO Michael O'Neill wrote a recent Billboard op-ed addressing the question, "So where do we go from here?"

"We've never been more optimistic about the future of music than we are now," said O'Neill, outlining three broad areas for continued positive change in the music marketplace.

One of the areas is updated copyright and music licensing reform, an area where the Recording Academy's continuous efforts will be on full display  April 18–19 during GRAMMYs on the Hill when recent GRAMMY winners, nominees and other music creators meet directly with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Another area ahead is for performing rights organizations to spread into related business by licensing additional rights, which seems ripe for future developments as the internet continues to spawn new formats and digital experiences.

And perhaps the most exciting and paramount of O'Neill's future areas is what he describes as "insight and transparency into the licensing process." There is more to this than meets the eye. The fundamental level O'Neill emphasizes is BMI's database collaboration with ASCAP.

"The intention is for this to be a vital asset to assist radio stations and other businesses in assessing their music needs, while providing greater insight and transparency into the licensing process," he said.

A future where the creative catalog serves licensees while treating licensors fairly is a dream worth making into reality, and a platform for futures we can't hope to imagine yet.

Perhaps the problem to be solved with optimism is balancing the need for patience with staying proactive daily. With unprecedented music community unity on copyright reform, thousands of professionals who care are striving to achieve a legal and regulatory environment suited for innovations ahead.

Willing Buyer/Willing Seller Standards Will Help Build A Sustainable Music Economy

anti-piracy

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Digital piracy: ACE alliance to lead the fight worldwide

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Also in this week's TechWatch: ASCAP, European Court of Justice, The Pirate Bay, YouTube
Philip Merrill
Advocacy
Jun 19, 2017 - 10:00 am

Rounding up recent tech news that impacts livelihoods in the creative community …

Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment takes digital anti-piracy worldwide
On June 13 the ACE alliance was announced by film studios Disney, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Bros., joining with two dozen other online content and distribution leaders, including Amazon, BBC, CBS, HBO, Hulu, NBCUniversal, and Netflix. Uniting behind a more global fight to build a worldwide market for digital video that is theft-free, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment will build on MPAA's decades of experience to coordinate a new generation of informed and sophisticated anti-piracy efforts worldwide. As MPAA Chairman/CEO, former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd has said, "Meeting the challenges ahead will require more voices, greater collaboration, new ideas, and increased resources. ACE, with its broad coalition of creators from around the world, is designed, specifically, to leverage the best possible resources to reduce piracy."

ASCAP, YouTube agree to share data and increase songwriter payouts
Performing rights organization ASCAP and video giant YouTube announced a multi-year voluntary licensing agreement on June 13. By transparently linking compositions' metadata to individual works appearing on YouTube, ASCAP anticipates increased payments and improved distributions moving ahead. ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews said, "This agreement achieves two important ASCAP goals — it will yield substantially higher overall compensation for our members from YouTube and will continue to propel ASCAP's ongoing transformation strategy to lead the industry toward more accurate and reliable data."

Europe's top court tags The Pirate Bay's operators' "essential role"
On June 14 the European Court of Justice published its verdict in a case from the Netherlands in which rights organization Stichting Brein sought to have internet connectivity providers XS4ALL and Ziggo block the infringing website The Pirate Bay. The Netherlands' Supreme Court sought the Court of Justice's judgement on whether The Pirate Bay, a sharing platform, was considered to be an act of communication and therefore liable to the copyright law. The Court's determination greatly expands the liability of operators that manage online sharing platforms because of their essential role in providing the platform, even though the content itself is uploaded by users. TPB management indexes torrents, categorizes them, deletes malfunctioning links, and actively filters content such that the operators themselves are considered to have participated in communicating copyrighted works to the public. This clarifies that the website itself is infringing and requests from rightsholders to block it should be honored.

Take action now: Help The Recording Academy protect the rights of all music creators

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Assistant Atorney General Makan Delrahim

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ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees Debate Discussed In Senate Judiciary Hearing

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As stakeholders' comments on consent decrees are reviewed by DOJ, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim weighs in
Nate Hertweck
Advocacy
Sep 18, 2019 - 3:35 pm

At yesterday's Senate Judiciary Hearing, a number of antitrust issues were raised, but the Department Of Justice's ongoing review of the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees were center stage for music creators. The consent decrees, which govern the process by which the two performing rights organizations license rights to publicly perform music, have stayed the same for nearly 80 years while the industry around them has changed drastically. The DOJ’s review has led to significant interest from stakeholders affected by the consent decrees, who have weighed in with hundreds of comments. And Congress has noticed.

And, following the passage of Music Modernization Act last October, Congress might have more of a say in the future of the consent decrees.  The Music Modernization Act contained a reporting requirement instructing the DOJ to inform the Senate and House Judiciary Committees of any planned actions affecting the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees. 

During yesterday's hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, one of the panel’s two witnesses, if the DOJ had complied with the Music Modernization Act ahead of their review of the music decrees. Delrahim reassured the committee that they've given reasonable advance notice to both the House and Senate committees before opening the matter to public comment, and pledged to keep lawmakers informed of any further action or decision.

Delrahim also explained the reasoning behind the agency’s review of the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees, the process his department is undertaking, and a rough timeline on when to expect next steps. The Assistant Attorney General, who served as keynote speaker during GRAMMYs on the Hill in April, did not give any indication on the outcome of the review.

Everyone from songwriters to publishers to non-music trade groups to small town venues have submitted comments for consideration. The Recording Academy spoke up on behalf of the thousands of songwriters represented by its membership, urging the DOJ to keep its focus on promoting competition through fair compensation.

"The consent decrees, which were initially put in place to promote competition, now constrain competition," the Academy's comments read. "ASCAP and BMI do not have the ability to experiment and innovate with new kinds of licenses that meet the needs of different customers. Accordingly, the outcome of any review of the consent decrees governing ASCAP and BMI should be less regulation, not more."

As the DOJ considers perspectives from all affected by consent decrees, the Recording Academy's comments also advise them to, "Pursue an outcome that provides every songwriter with the opportunity to secure compensation for their work in a fair marketplace,"

The hearing went on to cover other topics relevant to the music industry, including issues surround the ticketing marketplace, and with District Advocate day right around the corner on Oct. 2, music makers are becoming more involved in the outcome of their lawmakers' moves. For instance, with the CASE Act moving closer and closer to the president's desk and the long overdue need for Congress to pass radio performance rights looming, can the momentum of the Music Modernization Act continue to fill the sails of change to more outdated music policy? If yesterday's hearing is any indication, the answer is on the way soon.

Let Your Representatives Know You Stand In Support Of Music Creators' Rights