James A. Rose

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 compositi...

Spotify reporting its first operating profit.   A new significant amendment to copyright law in the fall of 2018.   New rate determinations and posturing on both sides of the publisher/writer versus digital services debate.   From a legal perspective, these are intriguing times in this business of music we love. The Bluewater Music Services Corporation vs. Spotify, Inc. action currently in the midst of discovery in the U.S. District Court – Middle District of Tennessee and set to go to trial in January of 2020 serves as a snapshot of the ongoing debate regarding music publishing royalties and the current position of stakeholders in the process. An article written by Marc Schneider and published in Billboard Biz on February 6, 2019, reports that Spotify scored its first operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2018.   The company which began in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2005 now streams to 78 countries and plans to expand to India.   It reports double-d...