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Category: Songwriter News
Series 3 of the @ArtistRights Watch Podcast is here! Nik Patel, @DavidCLowery, @MusicTechPolicy and @KCEsq Discuss The Future of Frozen Mechanicals
Series 3 of The Artist Rights Watch Podcast is here! Nik, David, and Chris are joined by attorney Kevin Casini to talk about the latest with the Copyright Royalty Board and mechanical rates in the Phonorecords IV proceeding.
Check out the podcast here!! Available on all platforms!
ARW Podcast S3E1: Unfreezing Mechanicals show notes
On the this episode of the Artist Rights Watch, Nik, David, and Chris sit down to talk about the recent developments with the CRB and mechanicals with lawyer and advocate, Kevin Casini. The Copyright Royalty Board who herein will more than likely be referred to as the CRB, ‘is a US system of three copyright reality judges who determines rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the US Copyright Office.’ The US mechanical royalties are determined by the CRB and they meet every 5 years to determine the rate. Songwriter groups argued for a higher rate, and the CRB agreed. On March 29, 2022 the CRB agreed to unfreeze the $0.091 mechanical royalty rate which would commence a fight for a new rate in the 2023-2027 period. Over the past few years, there has been numerous criticisms about the constant rule for freezing the mechanical royalty rate. The royalty rate currently is $0.091 which was set back in 2006, and frankly, songwriters are making less money due to economic inflation.
Show Notes and Background Materials
Copyright Royalty Board’s Rejection of NMPA, NSAI, Sony, Warner, Universal settlement
Survey Results from Songwriter Survey on Frozen Mechanicals
Selected Frozen Mechanicals Comments:
Helienne Lindvall, David Lowery, Blake Morgan
Abby North, Erin McAnally, Chelsea Crowell
NMPA, NSAI, Sony, Warner, Universal Comment with Copy of MOU4
Below are some links about Guest Kevin Casini:
Below are some links for further reading:
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/copyright-royalty-board-crb-rate-1235219872/
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/songwriters-win-copyright-royalty-board-mechanical-royalties-1235259518/
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/record-labels-and-publishers-ink-major-settlement-moving-from-9-1-cents-to-12-cents-per-track-for-us-mechanical-royalties-on-physical-sales1/
Below are our social links and terms of use:
Chris: http://www.christiancastle.com/chris-castle
David: https://twitter.com/davidclowery?s=20
https://www.instagram.com/davidclowery/
Nik: https://www.instagram.com/nikpatelmusic/
Website: https://artistrightswatch.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artistrightswatch
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtistRights?s=20
Terms of Use: https://artistrightswatchdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/arw-podcast-terms-of-use-v-1-i-1.pdf
Intro/Outro song: “All My Years” by Nik Patel
@musicbizworld: CONFIRMED: UNIVERSAL IS DISREGARDING UNRECOUPED BALANCES FOR HERITAGE ARTISTS
In February, MBW told you that Universal Music Group was planning to introduce a policy that would see unrecouped balances disregarded for eligible catalog songwriters and artists on its books.
We were told at the time by senior sources in the music industry that this policy would be confirmed publicly by UMG in the coming months.
Today (March 31), UMG has done just that.
@EustanceHuang: Evergrande collapse could have a ‘domino effect’ on China’s property sector, AllianceBernstein says
[Editor Charlie sez: Dow Jones dropped 800 points during trading yesterday on news of what could be China’s Lehman Brothers financial contagion, 2008-style–Holy pangolins, Batman! Don’t believe every dead cat bounce. If you didn’t notice that 800 point drop yesterday, this analyst has some sobering news highlighting the need to index all songwriter royalties to rise with inflation.]
China’s “highly distressed” real estate companies are at risk of collapse as the country’s highly indebted developer Evergrande is on the brink of default, warns AllianceBernstein’s Jenny Zeng.
Speaking with CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday, the co-head of Asia fixed income at AllianceBernstein warned of a “domino effect” from a potential Evergrande collapse.
“In the offshore dollar market, there is a considerable large portion of developers (who) are implied to be highly distressed,” Zeng said. These developers “can’t survive much longer” if the refinancing channel remains shut for a prolonged period, she added.
Results of ARW Songwriter Mechanical Royalty Income Questionnaire
We hosted a questionnaire to elicit responses from songwriters during June and July on the sources of their income particularly regarding physical and downloads. We got some interesting responses and many thanks to all those who participated!
You can read the entire anonymized responses here, but there were a couple of responses to call attention to:
Artist Rights Watch--News for the Artist Rights Advocacy Community 