Board Member Jamie Krutz sent a few articles that deal with the entertainment business in Colorado and elsewhere. We felt the information contained in these articles is important to musicians and hope that you will take the time to read them.
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SoundCloud to Let Fans Pay Artists Directly: Exclusive
By Micah Singleton, Billboard | SoundCloud is preparing to introduce a new payment system that would allow fans to pay artists directly, multiple sources close to the situation tell Billboard, setting what could be a game-changing precedent for the streaming world.
The move would make SoundCloud the first major music streaming service to embrace a direct payment model, a strategy that has been popular with Chinese streaming services like Tencent Music’s QQ Music for years, and one that subscription services like Patreon and OnlyFans have built their businesses around, as musicians and fans around the world clamor for bigger digital music distributors to do the same. A source close to the company says SoundCloud is still exploring several alternative streaming payout models and will announce its plans before the end of the first quarter of 2021. SoundCloud declined to comment.
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Bigger streamers like Spotify and Apple currently divvy up subscription fees to record labels based in part on the labels’ market share; labels then pay their artists a share of the revenue that depends on their individual agreements. But critics have lobbied for a system that would better support acts beyond the major-label superstars driving the bulk of the world’s streams while allowing fans to funnel their subscription money to the artists they actually listen to.
Read the whole story here:
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/9522066/soundcloud-payout-system-fans-artists-direct-payments/
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U.S. Copyright Office: Copyright and the Music Marketplace
Executive Summary:
The United States has the most innovative and influential music culture in the world, but much of the legal framework for licensing of music dates back to the early part of the twentieth century, long before the digital revolution in music. Our licensing system is founded on a view that the music marketplace requires a unique level of government regulation, much of it reflected in statutory licensing provisions of the Copyright Act. The Copyright Office believes that the time is ripe to question the existing paradigm for the licensing of musical works and sound recordings and consider meaningful change.
There is a widespread perception that our licensing system is broken. Songwriters and recording artists are concerned that they cannot make a living under the existing structure, which raises serious and systemic concerns for the future. Music publishers and performance rights organizations are frustrated that so much of their licensing activity is subject to government control, so they are constrained in the marketplace. Record labels and digital services complain that the licensing process is burdensome and inefficient, making it difficult to innovate.
While there is general consensus that the system needs attention, there is less agreement as to what should be done. In this report, after reviewing the existing framework and stakeholders’ views, the Copyright Office offers a series of guiding principles and preliminary recommendations for change. The Office’s proposals are meant to be contemplated together, rather than individually. With this approach, the Office seeks to present a series of balanced tradeoffs among the interested parties to create a fairer, more efficient, and more rational system for all.
A. Guiding Principles – The Copyright Office’s study revealed broad consensus among study participants on four key principles:
•Music creators should be fairly compensated for their contributions.
•The licensing process should be more efficient.
•Market participants should have access to authoritative data to identify and license sound recordings and musical works.
•Usage and payment information should be transparent and accessible to rights owners.
In addition to the above, based on the record in the proceeding, the Office has identified several additional principles that it believes should also guide any process of reform. These are:
•Government licensing processes should aspire to treat like uses of music alike.
•Government supervision should enable voluntary transactions while still supporting collective solutions.
•Rate-setting and enforcement of antitrust laws should be separately managed and addressed.
•A single, market-oriented ratesetting standard should apply to all music uses under statutory licenses.
https://www.copyright.gov/policy/musiclicensingstudy/copyright-and-the-music-marketplace.pdf