NMPA, NSAI Submit Streaming Rates Proposal to Copyright Royalty Board

The National Music Publishers’ Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International submitted a proposal today (Nov. 1) to the Copyright Royalty Board to determine the interactive streaming services rates payable by services like Pandora, Spotify, and others for 2018-2022. NMPA’s full brief can be seen here and proposed rates and terms here.

“Interactive streaming is becoming the dominant way in which consumers listen to music,” said NMPA President and CEO David Israelite. “This trend will continue, therefore it is imperative that we improve the rates paid by streaming services like Spotify to ensure that the songwriters who create the songs on which these platforms are built, are paid fairly.  The current licensing model is structured as a percentage of revenue, and we must change this to a structure where songwriters are paid in accordance with the inherent value – and popularity – of their work instead of the success of a given service’s business model. We are laser-focused on achieving royalty rates that are set on a per-play and per-user basis. While we remain open to achieving a settlement with the digital services to avoid a trial as we have done in the past, we are ready to fight for exactly what songwriters deserve.”

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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