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Publishers planning own ‘town hall’ event on CRB rates appeals
Spotify is rumoured (although not, as yet, confirmed) to be holding some ‘town-hall’ events to explain to songwriters why it’s appealing against new royalty rates set by the US Copyright Royalties...
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“You have used us and tried to divide us”: songwriters’ open letter to Spotify
Spotify is not the only streaming service to appeal the royalty rates set recently by the Copyright Royalty Board – Google, Pandora and Amazon are also appealing – but it is the one taking the most...
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Nile Rodgers: ‘Do not bite the hand that brings you your subscribers’
Artist and producer Nile Rodgers, of Chic, is famously one of the nicest people in the music industry – so finding yourself on his wrong side isn’t a fun position to be in. Rodgers has explained why he...
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Hipgnosis Songs Fund raises $185m to buy more songwriting catalogues
In Nile Rodgers’ NPR interview about CRB-rates appeals, he also mentioned the Hipgnosis Songs Fund in the UK as something that has “demonstrated to the financial community that hit songs are as...
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Spotify CFO predicts ‘long, drawn-out’ CRB-rates appeal
Spotify’s decision (alongside other streaming services) to appeal against new songwriter-royalty rates set by the US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has caused fury among the music-publishing community....
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Martin Bandier says Spotify CRB appeal is ‘dumbest PR move ever’
Spotify continues to take the most flak from the US music-publishing community over its recent decision to appeal against new songwriter royalty-rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) –...
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MMF wants to ‘shine a light’ on songwriter streaming royalties
The UK’s Music Managers Forum (MMF) has published a new guide, in partnership with CMU, focusing on songwriter royalties. It claims that “inefficient payment systems are drastically reducing the...
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Create Music Group’s new app will manage songwriting splits
Music firm Create Music Group has launched a new app aimed at songwriters. It’s called ‘Splits’ and it aims to help writers nail down the royalty-splits for their work as early as possible in the...
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Arctic Rights Management hits 2.5bn streams milestone
Since it was founded in 2018, Norwegian music firm Arctic Rights Management has built a roster of 30 songwriters and artists, while also representing various publishing catalogues. The company has just...
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Spotify’s global head of publishing is stepping down
2019 thus far has been a nadir in Spotify’s relationships with music publishers. Certainly in the US, where its decision to appeal (alongside several other streaming services) against new songwriter...
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Elena Segal on Apple Music and improving payments to songwriters
MBW has an interview with Elena Segal, Apple Music’s global director of music publishing, and asks her about the reasoning behind setting up a dedicated publishing division in the company, why Apple...
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Ryan Tedder slams artists who take undeserved songwriting credits
Complaints about artists taking an unmerited share of songwriting royalties on songs written for them aren’t new: the phrase ‘change a word, get a third’ has been around for years. Now songwriter Ryan...
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Spotify’s relationship with publishers hits the rocks – again
A new Spotify / music publishing story broke on Friday, but there’s a bigger picture here: the increasingly-dispiriting story of the streaming service’s approach towards the publishing community, as...
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Music podcast ‘And The Writer Is…’ passes 2m downloads
One of the quirks of the podcasts market in 2019 is that ‘downloads’ is still an important metric, even as the likes of Spotify and Pandora have made ‘streams’ a bigger part of the market. Still,...
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‘All levers need pulling’ to make streaming work for songwriters
The debate about whether songwriters aren’t getting their fair share of music-streaming royalties – and for many of them, whether their craft is sustainable at all – continues. Midia Research boss Mark...
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PRS for Music launches a data dashboard for songwriters
PRS for Music is the latest company to join the analytics bonanza with the launch yesterday (5 November) of a bespoke royalty dashboard for writers, their managers and publishers. It is available to...
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European songwriters body ECSA attacks Epidemic Sound
Swedish production-music firm Epidemic Sound is under fire again, but this time the focus isn’t on Spotify or so-called ‘fake artists’, but rather its original business of providing music for TV shows....
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Songtrust royalty collections have grown by nearly 250% in 2019
Royalty-collecting startup Songtrust is finishing 2019 by revealing some new figures on the growth of its business and the creators it represents. The company, which is a subsidiary of Downtown Music,...
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Composer Simon Darlow takes aim at buyout contracts
Composer and songwriter Simon Darlow’s writing credits include songs for Grace Jones and Shirley Bassey as well as TV shows such as Top Gear and the BBC News. He is also a vociferous opponent of buyout...
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Spotify launches ‘songwriter pages’ feature in beta
Spotify is launching a new feature aimed at songwriters, giving them their own profile pages on the streaming service, complete with playlists of recordings of their songs. ‘Songwriter Pages’ launches...
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