[Editor Charlie sez: Food fight in the cafeteria…]
While the two applicants vying to be named the group that will build the Mechanical Licensing Collective created by the Music Modernization Act (MMA) have thus far engaged in mudslinging at their competitors, in the comments to the Copyright Office filed Monday and posted Tuesday evening, each group let loose with both barrels in appraising the other’s proposal.
[Editor Charlie sez: ARW readers have probably seen the mainstream promotion for the two contenders to be the Mechanical Licensing Collective under the Music Modernization Act. What you may not have seen is the commentary from the indie community. The Copyright Office is currently soliciting input from the creative community about who would do a better job, “the MLC” supported by the National Music Publishers Association and their allies NSAI and SONA, or the American Mechanical Licensing Collective, backed by Zoë Keating, Stewart Copeland, Maria Schneider and many other songwriters. The comment period closed on April 22 and all comments are now posted on the Regulations.gov website. Following are selected comments and links that are important and raise many significant fairness issues as well as some business questions and legal hurdles that the MLC will ultimately need to get past. It’s not that others aren’t also interesting to the extent they are not form comments to the “Registrar of Copyright”…sheesh…it’s just that you’ve probably heard it all before.]
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0017 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0017)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: Schneider, Maria – Reply Comments
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0018 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0018)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: Keating, Zoe et al. – Reply Comments
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0056 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0056)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: SGA (Songwriters Guild of America) – Reply Comments
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0038 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0038)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: MusicAnswers – Reply Comments
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0039 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0039)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: Muddiman, Helene (pt. 1) – Reply Comments
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0040 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0040)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: Muddiman, Helene (pt. 2) – Reply Comments
DOCUMENT ID: COLC-2018-0011-0041 (https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2018-0011-0041)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 04/23/2019
DOCUMENT TITLE: Muddiman, Helene (pt. 3) – Reply Comments
I took a few years away from artist advocacy (after my husband died of cancer) but recently I feel called to get involved again and I’ve joined the board of the American Mechanical Licensing Collective.
I’m not being paid to do this and I’m not on anyone’s payroll — I’m a single mom who makes a living as a recording artist and I hardly even have time to even write this — but I feel compelled to speak out because time is short and I don’t see anyone else doing it. I’ve always advocated for under-represented artists and done what I can to shine a light on the friction and roadblocks that we face in earning a living from our music. My interest in joining the AMLC is to get royalties to the people who earned them, as transparently and efficiently as possible.
This is wonky stuff but bear with me
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