How the MMA Might Impact Your Income in a Good Way

We've all heard a lot of talk (and you are reading blog posts from me) about the Orrin G. Hatch - Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act of 2018 ("MMA").  You perhaps know only what information I have published about rate appeals, Copyright Royalty Judges, and the Mechanical Licensing Collective.  

But you DO know about your income from streaming services (and it probably is not much).  In an effort to help the real-life Nashville developing songwriter/recording artist, I set out to write this blog post to decipher the boilerplate contracts published on the TuneCore web site.  TuneCore is a site that smooths the path for creative people to sell music online, i.e. Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, and Google Play.  

I printed the contracts and began to highlight contract points such as non-exclusivity, 100% of net income, statute of limitation for objecting to accounting statements, and responsibility for securing licenses from owners of musical composition copyrights.  

This is all helpful information in a sense.  But it doesn't mean a lot if an artist or writer isn't getting paid very much.  "100% of net income" sounds good but may not mean much at all.

So I shifted my focus to examining the real world, asking some questions, and starting a conversation with you.

On April 14 of this year, I posted about compulsory licensing rates for interactive streams and limited downloads of musical works as approved by the Copyright Royalty Judges but appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit by Spotify, Amazon, and Pandora.  Those rates now represent a percent of revenue rate structure and have been raised 44%. 

The question presented here is whether these changes will impact the income of developing talent.  And obviously I won't know this without talking to you.  It would seem that, if the rates had zero impact on the streaming services, there would be no reason to appeal.  

Another key question may be whether the services might pass some of these costs to the consumer.  As I write this post, Billboard 's Glenn Peoples has just published an article about possible price increases for streaming subscriptions.  This article doesn't connect any such potential price increase with the royalty rates.  But I must wonder if something like this is on the horizon.

The area of royalties can be complex, but some understanding of it is key if you are to earn money and achieve success in this business of music we love.  The new law will have a positive impact.  Just exactly what that impact is remains to be seen.  I look forward to discussing it more and to posting about it, too.

In the meantime, don't hesitate to contact me if you need the TuneCore contracts analyzed.