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18 March 2012

U.S. ISPs to begin punishing bittorrent pirates this summer

This July major US Internet service providers, including Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner Cable, will start assisting copyright holders in their fight against online copyright infringement. They will begin fulfilling their obligations under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year, which will see the providers send out copyright infringement warnings to their millions of customers. The ISPs agreed to take steps to “educate” allegedly infringing customers through an escalating system of notices, warnings, and other measures. The first so-called ‘Initial Educational Steps’ will advise customers that copyright infringement is illegal and a breach of the ISP’s terms of service, that legal alternatives are available, and that continuing to infringe may have consequences including account suspension or termination. Should several attempts fail, ISPs will be able to send a Mitigation Measure Copyright Alert (FAQ here) which again requires customer acknowledgment. It will advise that a customer has received prior warnings and as per the ISPs terms of service, a ‘Mitigation Measure’ will now be applied to the account. Mitigation measures can include throttling of upload or download speeds, a temporary reduction in service quality to one step above dial-up, redirection to a landing page so that the customer can be further ‘educated’, or even account suspension.

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10 March 2012

ASCAP Reports Increased Revenues in 2011

ASCAP, he U.S. collecting society for performance rights royalty collections and advocacy on behalf of songwriters, composers and copyright owners, announced strong revenues of $985 million for calendar year 2011. With an increase of 5,4% over 2010 these revenues are the second highest in the organization’s history. Especially foreign income did very well. Collections from foreign countries totaled $347 million, an increase of approximately $50 million over 2010. Representing more than 425,000 music creators from every genre, the member-owned organization distributed over $824 million to its songwriters, composers and music publishers. ASCAP offers members a very good career development, education and professional recognition through their highly successful and innovative programs, from the annual ASCAP “I Create Music” EXPO to the Sundance/ASCAP Music Café to TV and film composing workshops to multi-genre songwriting workshops and songwriting camps, bringing together emerging and hit writers, to their annual award shows. Also in 2011, ASCAP introduced several enhancements to its online Member Access interface, providing members with the most advanced online tools in performing rights for managing their catalogs, royalty statements and more. ASCAP created a new organizational structure in 2011: EVP, Membership Randy Grimmett was promoted to take on added leadership of a multi-functional membership department which consolidates member services, creative services, business affairs, estates and claims, and marketing and communications into a fully integrated department that is serving the evolving career needs of members and providing the strongest advocacy for their work. Vincent Candilora, formerly SVP, was promoted to Executive Vice President, Licensing, taking leadership of all licensing-related areas including broadcast, cable, online, wireless and general licensing as well as infringements. Roger Greenaway, formerly SVP, International, and based in London, is now named EVP, with all international operations reporting to him, including relationships with foreign societies, collection of foreign revenues and distributions.

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03 March 2012

Warner Music launches YouTube channel

Warner Music Group is initiating an original YouTube channel, “The Warner Sound“, that will feature exclusive new content from the major. WMG’s endeavor will launch with live webcasts from the SXSW Music Conference and Festival March 13-15 by acts like T.I., B.o.B., Dr. John, Ed Sheeran, Theophilus London, Kimbra and Gary Clark, Jr. The Warner Sound’s content will include “ManTazia,” an experimental film series by Cee-Lo Green. Also airing will be “The Live Room,” a series of intimate performances with scheduled appearances by B.o.B. and Regina Spektor. The Warner Sound’s production partners include new media production company Mighty Fresh, which will be responsible for day-to-day editorial and production of original content.

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02 March 2012

Music rights agency Merlin wins illegal file sharing battle with LimeWire

Merlin, the rights agency for independent record labels representing acts including Adele and Arctic Monkeys, has reached a landmark deal with LimeWire worth millions of dollars to artists to end a long-running legal battle over illegal file sharing. The out-of-court settlement, which is thought to be worth between $5m and $10m, is the largest the independent music sector has won in its battle against digital music piracy.

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02 March 2012

BMG acquires R2M assets

BMG Rights Management has acquired the assets of R2M Music. R2M (publisher) was founded in 2006 by ex-Sony ATV management execs Paul Russell, Richard Rowe and Phil May. The deal includes 12,000 copyrights, with 35 Top Ten hits. As part of the transaction BMG has picked up the LeFrak catalogue, home to hits by 2Pac and Neil Sedaka. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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18 March 2012

Spotify started in Germany without key license

Spotify has been stuck in painful negotiations with GEMA, Germany’s main music rights group, over how much it wants from the company for each song that gets played. While Spotify may well try to cut deals with the major labels, who all have a stake in the company, GEMA has remained steadfast with notoriously high rates compared with other collection societies. Spotify had been delaying its move into Germany because the startup apparently was so complicated that it simply launched its service for Germans without a contract with rights holders group GEMA. Harald Heker (GEMA president) said during the association’s annual press conference that negotiations with Spotify are still ongoing, with a final meeting scheduled for March 26. GEMA’s standard rates call for payments of up to 0.006 Euro per song played – an expensive proposition for any music service that offers up songs for free. Spotify says: “Spotify offers a legal service in Germany. We are in ongoing discussions with GEMA to formalise a long-term agreement. We are paying composers and lyricists in Germany, just as we pay composers and lyricists in all other countries in which we operate.”

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