US Copyright Office Modernizes the Music World

In case you missed it back in February, the US Copyright Office is “about to shake things up a bit on behalf of music artists.”

The US Copyright Office released a report February 2 titled “Copyright and the Music Marketplace”. The 202-page report reviews of copyright’s historical role, issues with the music industry’s current climate, and recommended alternatives.

Jacqueline Charlesworth, General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights and co-author of the report, gave a talk on the report’s findings March 30, at the Princeton Club in New York.

The report covers the first instances of compositional protection (in 1790, compositions considered books) all the way up to February 2, when the report was released. There were quite a few stops along the way:

--1941:, ASCAP and BMI enter into consent decrees with the DOJ.

--1972: “Congress grants protection for sound recordings, but no right of public performance.

--2014: “California and New York courts hold public performance of pre-1972 sound recordings protected under applicable state law.

--2015: “The United States has the most innovative and influential music culture in the world, but our system for enabling the paid use of music—and ensuring compensation for its creators—lags far behind.

”The recent breathtaking shift from physical to digital music consumption has the industry scrambling to make their outdated systems work. Industry revenue from physical sales dropped from 98.4% in 2004to 35% in 2013.

And artists are feeling the hit. Since 2013, Avicii’s “Wake Me Up!” has been streamed on Pandora over 168 million times, taking 13th place in the most played songs category. Aloe Blacc, co-writer of the song, told Wired he’s earned less than $4,000 from those streams. Taylor Swift, sick of getting short changed by streaming, took her songs off Spotify.

The U.S. Copyright report outlined other issues, such as:

-- Fair compensation, rights, and treatment for songwriters and artists

-- Licensing regulations and standards

-- Song licensing and PRO consent decrees

-- Radio performance rights

-- Federalizing pre-1972 recordings

-- Dealing with all that data

-- Transparency between creators and payments

That list covers pretty much everything. Thankfully, The US Copyright Office outlined a number of workable alternatives to get us headed in the right direction.

Working from a set of “guiding principles” for both stakeholders and the Copyright Office, the report creates a world where artists might not starve.

-- The implementation of Music Rights Organizations (MROs). These would include PROs licensing mechanical and performance rights, with more efficient (i.e.- immediate) payments.

-- More consistent treatment of digital performances.

-- Songwriters should be able to get their share of through the MRO, improving transparency.

-- Instead of licensing every song on an individual basis, have give MROs “blanket licenses”.

-- Completely protect radio plays and pre-1972 recordings.

-- Implement a non-governmental/non-profit central database of all songs.

Vox said, “This horribly dull government report could change music forever.”

Here's hoping it does.