One of the biggest lies told by Spotify is that streaming will provide more revenue over the life of a record because every play will be monetized. This as opposed to the one time payment earned from a transactional purchase where all the revenue from the purchase of the record is paid at once. There … Continue reading →

  Is Assistant Attorney General Antitrust Makan Delrahim songwriters’ new best friend?  Other than Chris Castle at MusicTechPolicy no one in music business seems to have noticed that the Makan Delrahim the new DOJ antitrust chief is suggesting ending many (if not all) so-called “consent decrees.”  Consent decrees are a kind of regulatory supervision imposed … Continue reading →

Yesterday I published an article detailing the Human Rights complaint against Canada by David Kaye a so-called “UN Rapporteur for Freedom of expression.”  While citizens of authoritarian governments worldwide are subject to restraints on freedom of expression, Professor David Kaye decided the four alarm fire for freedom of expression is a rather modest proposal to … Continue reading →

David Kaye’s Fancy stationary.    David Kaye is a professor of law at University of California Irvine. He is also some sort of low grade UN Human rights official. He has fancy stationary with an address in Switzerland that says so. Isn’t that precious. This UN title and fancy stationary apparently allows him to treat … Continue reading →

Bono, you know the singer in U2.  Also a venture capitalist. Anyway this is a joke that has been floating around the music business since probably the early 1990s.   There are a dozens of versions of it.  I have no idea who originally came up with the joke. But here’s the version told to … Continue reading →

Spotify is stalking you (advertising campaign image by Spotify) The public has woken up to the fact that Facebook is a spying and privacy violating machine.   Governments in half a dozen countries have announced some sort of investigation into the company.  What most people don’t realize is that Facebook is not unique.  Virtually every … Continue reading →

Originally posted on Music Technology Policy:
The 2nd Draft of Music Modernization Act 3/22/18 was released publicly today.  We are reviewing and will post comments in the coming days. The first thing I noticed is that the tragic demonstration of the raw lobbying power of Big Tech: The litigation reach back safe harbor seems to still be…

Originally posted on The Trichordist:
Rates are “all in” at source.  Calculations based on royalty statements from a catalogue of 1500 titles 2014.  Exception is Pandora which was calculated from 2nd quarter 2015 statements (higher than 2014).   In the fight for fair pay artists are not at war with the Internet or really even…

The famous old Russian proverb reminds us to trust but verify. That’s been the story in the record business since the cylindrical disc. All the “modernization” in the world will not soothe songwriter’s genetic suspicion of their accounting statements. Unfortunately, the controversial Music Modernization Act creates a quasi-governmental organization with no oversight, and that has weak and punitive audit clauses for songwriters. We are told that songwriters should appreciate what they’re given because they never had audit rights under the current statutory license. Of course, if you run the risk of being financially punished if you exercise a right, that’s not much of a right at all. So let’s not do the usual two steps forward, three steps back. Continue reading →