Sound Exchange

SoundExchange Asks Copyright Board to Defend Recording Artists, Owners

Web III convenes; few remaining services to resist fair royalties for digital music

Washington, DC – SoundExchange, the non-profit performance rights organization which collects and distributes digital performance royalties for sound recordings, made opening remarks today before the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), stating its case for continued fair royalty rates as the CRB convenes proceedings to set webcasting rates for 2011-2015.

This CRB proceeding is being held to set general rates for royalties paid to recording artists and copyright holders for the use of sound recordings by webcasters. These rates will ultimately apply to very few webcasters, however. In the past year, SoundExchange has negotiated eight alternative rate structure agreements, tailored to the needs and concerns of diverse business models. These optional models currently include more than 90% of the webcasting market, who are therefore not subject to the to-be-determined rates. The only remaining commercial service in the proceeding is Live365, which is seeking to pay less than half of the value paid by similar services.

“We prefer to work with webcasters as partners and not adversaries, and we have been flexible in reaching numerous business solutions which benefit the industry as a whole,” said Michael Huppe, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at SoundExchange. “When necessary, however, we stand ready to defend our artists and rights owners to ensure that they are fairly paid for their work which, after all, forms the backbone of any music service.”

Currently, CRB standard rates for 2010 are $0.0019 “per performance” (the rate is charged per listener, per track) – royalties which are distributed by SoundExchange to the artists and rights owners who helped to create that recording. SoundExchange proposes that the rate be increased to $0.0021 for 2011. Both current and proposed rates include incremental annual increases, to compensate for inflation and reflect the increasing value of sound recordings.

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About SoundExchange: SoundExchange is the non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio, internet radio, cable TV music channels and other services that stream sound recordings. The Copyright Royalty Board, created by Congress, has entrusted SoundExchange as the only entity in the United States to collect and distribute these digital performance royalties for featured recording artists and master rights owners. SoundExchange currently represents over 5,500 record labels, over 45,000 featured artists, and has paid out more than $412 million in royalties since its creation in 2003. www.SoundExchange.com

SoundExchange Announces $51.7 million in Q1 payments to artists, labels

Indie labels claim largest share to date of funds earned from digital music

Washington, DC – SoundExchange, the non-profit performance rights organization appointed by Congress to pay digital royalties to recording artists and sound recording copyright holders, announced today that it has begun sending out checks in its largest-ever quarterly distribution. A total of $51.7 million in royalties from digital transmissions, including Internet radio, satellite radio, and cable TV music channels, are on their way to recording artists and copyright holders. The unprecedented amount represents a 135% increase over first quarter payments last year, and surpasses the previous record distribution by nearly $10 million.

Spring 2010 NewsExchange

As I write this, $51.7 million in royalties is on its way out to our registrants and members. That’s our largest quarterly distribution ever, and it’s reflective of a lot of hard work: both your creative work, which draws this kind of value from those who love to listen, and the hard work going on at SoundExchange to get those payments to you as efficiently as possible. In our past few issues, I’ve used this space to talk about some of the challenges facing SoundExchange… read more     In the last eight months, Distribution Services has been focused on two main objectives: Distributing (and in many cases, obtaining) the delinquent reports of use from licensees that had not yet been distributed…read more     As noted in previous editions of NewsExchange, in mid-2009 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued its decision in the appeal of the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)’s May 2007 decision setting rates and terms for webcasters for 2006-2010.. read more     “Excuse me,” says a SoundExchange staff member, waving at those passing booth 400 at the South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas. “Are you on our list?” The list stretches behind her, a full fifteen feet of names on a laminated banner. People stop to squint at it, pointing to names they recognize. “We’re giving away a million dollars,” says the SoundExchange staffer, “And if your name’s on this list, some of it’s yours!” read more     SoundExchange has been busy as always, attending, sponsoring, or speaking at music festivals, conferences and meetings. We always try to be where the artists and copyright holders are, spreading the word about performance rights and helping folks get registered and maximize their royalties. read more     Corporate radio posts yet more profits; claim they’re still too poor to pay for music. Ever heard the stereotype of the ‘starving radio exec’? We haven’t either.read more

SoundExchange is a non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), internet radio, cable TV music channels, and similar platforms for streaming sound recordings. The U.S. Copyright Office has entrusted SoundExchange as the sole entity in the United States to collect and distribute these digital performance royalties on behalf of featured and non-featured recording artists, master rights owners (usually record labels), and independent artists who record and own their masters.

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