Apple will not appeal songwriter royalty increase, digital music competitors Spotify, Google, Pandora, and Amazon

“Spotify, Google, Pandora and Amazon have teamed up to appeal a controversial ruling by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that, if it goes through, would increase payouts to songwriters by 44%, Variety has learned,” Chris Willman reports for Variety. “A joint statement from the first three of those companies reads: ‘The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), in a split decision, recently issued the U.S. mechanical statutory rates in a manner that raises serious procedural and substantive concerns. If left to stand, the CRB’s decision harms both music licensees and copyright owners. Accordingly, we are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review the decision.'”
Willman reports, “Sources say that Apple Music is alone among the major streaming services in not planning to appeal.”
“David Israelite, president/CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, had previously said that the digital companies would be ‘declaring war’ on the songwriting community if they appealed the royalty increase,” Willman reports. “Israelite did single out Apple for praise for not participating in an appeal. ‘We thank Apple Music for accepting the CRB decision and continuing to be a friend to songwriters,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Message: Unlike Spotify, Pandora, et al., Apple cares about songwriters.
If the appeal fails:
The big losers here are Spotify and Pandora. Apple, Amazon, and Google each have enough money to pay songwriters 15.1% until the end of time. — MacDailyNews, January 29, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Spotify, Apple, YouTube lose as Copyright Royalty Board raises streaming music royalty rates – January 29, 2018