The songwriters, represented at CRB negotiations by the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA), are proposing that royalties for physical sales be increased to 12.5 cents per song (twice the labels' proposed rate), with a rate of 15 cents per song for downloaded songs, under the assumption that downloaded music has lower costs for the labels compared to the distribution of physical media like CDs. Their proposal calls for streaming royalties to be set at 12.5% of revenue, 27.5% of content costs, or less than a penny per play as a flat rate.
The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents many of the tech companies involved in the internet music industry, is also involved in the CRB hearings, and have their own proposal. Not surprisingly, it also suggests setting royalties lower than songwriters, or even the labels, are asking. In fact, in the case of streaming royalties they're saying the songwriters have no Right to royalties, and are asking the CRB to make a definitive judgement on the question.
If the CRB sounds familiar, you may be remembering their big announcement last year that they would be accepting a SoundExchange (recording industry) proposal for new internet radio royalties without a single change. This may be a bad sign for songwriters, who are counting on the CRB to actually read and consider three different royalty proposals to determine what's fair.
Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 6 Feb 2008 0:10
