Music Publishers and Writers Lobbying Congress Over iTunes and Other Digital Downloads
According to CNET, it seems songwriters, composers, and music publishers are working on a plan to target Apple and other online distribution outlets to increase compensation they receive for their downloads. Adding more fuel to the fire, they even want to be compensated for 30 second previews found on a lot of sites.
Having already been unsuccessful at negotiating increased fees with distributors such as Apple, the groups, which include the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) among others, have begun lobbying the U.S. Congress in order to pass legislation to address their claims.
The groups are targeting what is know as a “performance fee”, a type of licensing fee used to compensate composers and publishers when their work is performed in public. David Renzer, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, said in interview late last month with entertainment-industry publication, Encore. “(On iTunes) you can stream radio, and you can preview (tracks), things that we should be getting paid performance income for.”
To further complicate the matter, artists are seeking performance fees for songs played in movies and TV shows downloaded. Typically, when a movie or TV show is played on the air a performance fee is paid to a artist for a song played in the show. However, no such fees are paid when the movie or TV show is downloaded.
So far Congress, and courts, have sided with digital content distributors claiming anything downloaded should be considered a private performance and should not be counted as a public broadcast. I, personally, believe this to be true as well.
So what are your thoughts on this matter?
I agree with the bit about downloads not being a public performance, as well. If they get that, the next thing you know there will be lawsuits against private citizens claiming we have to pay a performance fee for listening to music on a radio.
As was stated above, who knows where this might lead? They better put up a brick wall against this one somehow, or else we could very well be paying some corporate part of the music industry every time we hear a song in any media transmission for any length of time.
Plus if someone isn't able to preview the tracks they might just get a "preview" elsewhere and not bother buying the song.
Plus if someone isn't able to preview the tracks they might just get a "preview" elsewhere and not bother buying the song.