He notes that their effort doesn’t solve the transparency issue. “While I’m not surprised about ASCAP and BMI teaming up to launch a database, I am disappointed that it wasn’t inclusive of other performance rights organizations,” Bandier said. That’s why the MIC Coalition strongly supports “Transparency in Music Licensing and Ownership Act” introduced by Congressman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA).”Įven Sony/ATV chairman Martin Bandier questioned the wisdom of making the announcement without having the other two PROs, SESAC and Global Music Rights, on board. “Only Congress has the ability to create a neutral, reliable and comprehensive database. “We appreciate that ASCAP and BMI recognize that there is a problem in the current music licensing system, but what they are proposing is not a complete solution,” the statement said. The MIC Coalition, a group of trade associations whose members license music, said in a statement that the BMI/ASCAP proposal misses the mark. Of Justice, which oversees the consent decrees that they operate under, aware of their database efforts.īMI Promotes Alison Smith and Mike Steinberg to EVP Roles With their announcement today, they are grasping at straws trying to maintain power over a failing process that only serves their interests, not those of the American consumer.”īut sources say ASCAP and BMI have made the Dept. Sure enough, later that day Sensenbrenner attacked the ASCAP/BMI announcement: If BMI and ASCAP were serious about establishing a music database that they were working on for over a year, “not only would they have spoken to my office and other interested Members of Congress about their plans, but they would have also included their fellow PROs in the initiative. Copyright Office to build and control the database.” “With their announcement of only preparing a half a pie, they are playing to Sensenbrenner, who wants the U.S. The industry needs to be the ones “to create and control a comprehensive rights owners database instead of letting the government take control of this issue,” says one senior music publishing executive. (Digital music services need licenses for both performance and mechanical rights to the tunes they offer.) Some find little solace in the passage in the joint press release announcing the database as something that “will serve as a foundation that can evolve to include a broader range of music information across the entire industry.” So it won’t help digital services that offer on-demand streaming get the critical information they need for mechanical licensing. For one, the proposed database will only include performing rights groups’ shares, not each publisher’s share of each song. Though the ASCAP-BMI announcement might have been a way to stave off such government intervention, some industry executives say that their initial partial solution actually plays into the hands of Sensenbrenner for several reasons. The act would also limit the remedies available to copyright owners to bring infringement actions for copyright violations, if they don’t support the database with their information. Copyright Office to establish and maintain a current information database of musical works and sound recordings. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), which calls for the U.S. Many fear that ASCAP, the American Society for Composers and Publishers, and BMI, Broadcast Music Inc., were responding to the July 20 legislation entitled “Transparency in Music Licensing Ownership Act,” introduced by Sensenbrenner and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) appears to call for just that.ĪSCAP and BMI Team Up to Launch Musical Works Database, Eyeing Increased Transparency government regulate its licensing practices more heavily, and the bill from Rep. But few in the music industry want to see the U.S. The concept of a globalized rights-holders database that would marry compositions with recordings - which has been discussed for a decade - has proven elusive because the industry hasn’t been able to get all of its competing sectors on board. Some industry executives said the nearly two-year-long effort to create a single database that would list the songs of the two performing rights groups, and what share of each song each PRO controls, is a step in the right direction, but others are disappointed that it appears to be just a partial answer that omits key data and for now excludes the other two PROs - SESAC and Global Music Rights - and they worry the move could help pave the way for the federal government to seize control of the broader effort. While the music industry has long clamored for one comprehensive database that pairs compositions with recordings that would make licensing easier, ASCAP and BMI’s recently announced plan to build their own joint performing-rights database has received a mixed reaction.
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