Posted on 07/04/2015 6:25:17 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
For the past two years, the music industry has been watching a series of lawsuits centered on an obscure aspect of copyright law: whether the performers on older recordings should get royalties when their songs are played on digital radio services.
One of those lawsuits was settled Friday when SiriusXM, the satellite radio provider, announced it would pay $210 million to the major record companies over its broadcasting of songs made before 1972.
...two years ago members of the 1960s band the Turtles, whose hits included “Happy Together” sued Sirius in three federal courts, saying their songs before 1972 were still covered under state laws in New York, California and Florida. The group accused Sirius of broadcasting them without permission, and sought $100 million in damages as part of a class-action suit.
The major labels soon followed with their own case, in California state court. On Friday, Sirius disclosed through a securities filing that on June 17 it had reached an agreement with the labels that would cover its use of old songs through the end of 2017, and would negotiate with labels for new licenses thereafter.
...Last year Sirius had $4.2 billion in revenue, and Wall Street analysts estimate that the company paid about 10 percent of that — approximately $400 million — in music royalties.
...The suit by the Turtles is still unresolved.
...The Turtles’ suit has been certified with class-action status, although the labels’ settlement with Sirius will reduce the size of that class....
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
People pay to listen to the radio. Guglielmo Marconi is kicking himself for not thinking of that.
Well, this means SiriusXM will now play nothing BUT cover-band versions now, not just post 1972. That way they just need to pay royalties on the songs themselves and not the recordings. Much cheaper that way, and apparently today’s youngsters don’t know the difference, anyway. I do, and when I found out what crap SiriusXM played, I dropped them after only a day and got my money back.
There, fixed it.
The big summer shed concerts now have a number of ‘beatlemania’ recreations of bands like Led Zeppelin (Led Zep 2) and Pink Floyd (Australian Pink Floyd, etc).
The suits are quite willing to let the pre-72 performers go without any money from this decision (which will see to it that the artists are not paid all the way up to 2017).
How many of those pre-72 performers are even going to still be alive in 2018? It’ll be 50 years after 1968. The music that is played on the decade stations stretches back before 1945. Yet the song publishing itself is protected by extended copyrights for 100+ years...
Spanish language, Asian languages (Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean), and Middle Eastern tongues are filling up the airwaves on AM and sometimes of FM. Rock (old and news) is a dead format in FM radio. It's been replaced by Tejano and Rap.
Some people are expected to pay for radio, other formats fight for audience share among those who won't pay.
It’s kind of like the 1990s when Viacom took their “classic” sitcoms and police dramas out of syndication and moved them to TV Land, Turner did the same with his television properties, etc. and mass audiences ended up paying monthly to watch the same reruns they used to get for free AND getting commercials on their pay-tv.
Really? Sirius plays 60s cover versions. I have only listened a few times in rental cars and they played the original versions when I listened, has that changed?
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
The time limits on patents are severely (such as drugs) limited but the entertainment industry keeps getting money long after the artist and authors are long dead.
Anybody else see the finger prints of Liberal Politicians all over this.
SirusXM doesn’t pay crap for royalties... The subscribers do which IMO is total BS since terrestrial radio doesn’t pay squat... In fact a lot of labels/bands pay for their crap to be played on the air. More airtime=more record sales=more money going to the greedy shyster record execs.
Sonny Bono (R-CA) was among those in the 1990s who pushed for one of the extensions.
RIAA is one of the top lobbyists in DC.
I don’t know what SIRIUS you were listening to, but we have it as part of our Dish package (no extra costs) and I listen about 12-15 hours a day.
Plenty of choices, 70’s, 80’s, classic rewind (Cassette music), The Bridge (James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, etc), Hair Nation, Deep Tracks
I hear songs on here I haven’t heard for years, and compared to Radio today, it’s worth it to never hear the name Kanye, or Beyonce ever again.
Nonsense, XM and now SiriusXM have set the standard in paying royalties since they started up. They are the only ones who do, and will continue to do so. You should get your facts straight before making asinine predictions.
You’re wrong. Subscribers pay 13.9%of their subscription price specifically for the Music Royalty Fee. Wise up.
Most of the music I listen to was recorded long before 1972.
They had 5 top 10 hits.
I agree it's beyond ridiculous. Twenty five years on music is more than reasonable. Most persons who are really into music will buy a legal copy most likely anyways. I listen to a FM station classic rock to listen for music I had forgotten about and often later buy because of radio play.
Ever since I was about 10 years old I've been buying recordings. 47 years of purchases and none of the music is public domain yet. I had about 500 Vinyl LP's at one point. Now I have about 400 CD's and about 250 Cassettes. How many times must I pay premium licensing for them? Some great music is lost thanks to the recording companies antics. One or two releases in one format then gone. Not to be found in new formats. A 20-25 year copyright life would help resolve that and be a win-win for all. Yeah some recordings of the 1970's are still going strong but it's mainly people replacing worn out disk. Dark Side Of The Moon is a good example.
“Most of the music I listen to was recorded long before 1972.”
I am guessing you are referring to stuff written before Marconi was born.
There, fixed it.
I aint that old, but old enough to know your comment was ignorant, perhaps you should google before you spout.
I have a RHINO album compilation by the Turtles and there are several top 40 hits by the Turtles. “You Showed Me”, “You Baby”, “Elenore”, “She’d Rather Be With Me”, and “It Ain’t Me Babe” were just a few.
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