Four major streaming services have been accused of “suing songwriters” after they appealed against a proposed pay hike for artists.
On 7th March, it emerged that the owners of Spotify and Amazon had lodged legal appeals against a 44% rise in streaming royalties for songwriters and music publishers.
The US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently ruled in favour of the royalty rise, which was proposed to rise gradually over the next five years.
The rise also garnered pushback from Pandora and Google, who asked the CRB to “review its decision”.
In contrast, Apple Music has left the pay hike, viewed as a landmark change for songwriters, unchallenged and accepted the new rates.
https://twitter.com/marshallvore/status/1104166449164115969
@Spotify you effectively suing songwriters after this ruling is disgraceful! The entire workforce that give your product any content and you’re trying to continuously shaft them. Bring on the big switch to @AppleMusic
— Loz Garratt (@lozgarratt) March 11, 2019
I’m not a soapbox guy but sometimes you gotta speak up in the face of appalling corporate greed. Streaming services Spotify, Google, Pandora and Amazon don’t believe songwriters should… https://t.co/EKznGzpWuP
— Kevin Griffin (@kevinmgriffin) March 11, 2019
Speaking to Music Business Worldwide, The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), who championed the royalty rise, described the appeals from Spotify and Amazon as “shameful” and comparable to “suing songwriters.”
In an official statement, David Israelite, President and CEO of the NMPA said: “A huge victory for songwriters is now in jeopardy … When the Music Modernisation Act became law, there was hope it signaled a new day of improved relations between digital music services and songwriters.
“That hope was snuffed out today when Spotify and Amazon decided to sue songwriters in a shameful attempt to cut their payments by nearly one-third…The Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB’s) final determination gave songwriters only their second meaningful rate increase in over 110 years.”
Israelite continued: “Instead of accepting the CRB’s decision which still values songs less than their fair market value, Spotify and Amazon have declared war on the songwriting community by appealing that decision…No amount of insecure and hollow public relation gestures such as throwing parties or buying billboards of congratulations or naming songwriters ‘geniuses’ can hide the fact that these big tech bullies do not respect or value the songwriters who make their businesses possible.”
Google, Pandora and Spotify issued a joint statement detailing their disputes: “The 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 licenses and copyright owners. Accordingly, we are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit to review the decision.”
