RIAA Notebook

RIAA NOTEBOOK

10/09/2000
Source: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,13029780,00.htm

The (RIAA) Recording Industry Association of America on Friday christened its long-planned group for distributing Webcasting royalties, naming it "SoundExchange."

The need for this group stems from the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which for the first time requires Webcasters to pay royalties. The music industry and technology companies have collectively been unable to come to terms on what this rate should be, and no group is yet officially in charge of collecting these fees. The record industry is the only group that has stepped forward in the United States to create such an organization, but it ultimately must be certified by the U.S. Copyright Office.

This excerpt is from the SoundExchange website *(Solicits sign up)

(SRCOs) Sound Recording Copyright Owners are individuals or entities (typically record labels) who own the sound recording copyright under U.S. Copyright law (sometimes referred to as the “master” rights to a sound recording) or have the right to license the public performance of a sound recording by means of a digital audio transmission.

"Please note that if you are an independent recording artist, you may own the “master” rights to your sound recordings if you have not assigned them, for example, to a record label" (And, if so, make sure you register with SoundExchange as both featured artist AND copyright owner).

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Source: http://www.soundexchangeblog.com/?page_id=2

SoundExchange is an independent, nonprofit performance rights organization that is designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for featured recording artists and sound recording copyright owners (usually a record label) when their sound recordings are performed on digital cable and satellite television music, internet and satellite radio (such as XM and Sirius). SoundExchange currently represents over 3,500 record labels and over 31,000 featured artists and whose members include both signed and unsigned recording artists; small, medium and large independent record companies; and major label groups and artist-owned labels.

Prior to 1995, Sound Recording Copyright Owners (SRCOs) in the United States did not have a performance right. This meant that, unlike their counterparts in most of Europe and other nations around the world, recording companies and artists were not entitled to receive payment for the public performance of their works. Users of music, the digital music service providers, freely performed these works at will, without a dime being paid to the rightful owners of those recordings or the featured artists who performed the songs – the recordings which created the backbone of their business.

The Digital Performance in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 changed that by granting a performance right in sound recordings. As a result, copyright law now requires that users of music pay the copyright owner of the sound recording for the public performance of that music via certain digital transmissions.

The U.S. Copyright Office recognized the benefits of SoundExchange’s administration of these royalties, and so has designated SoundExchange as the administrative entity for subscription services’ statutory license fees.

You may find SoundExchange’s Notice of Designation as Collective Under Statutory License here. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) was established by Congress in 2004 to set fair market rates to be paid to recording artists and record labels under the statutory license. The CRB reaffirmed SoundExchange’s sole collective status in 2007.

*End of quote from source.

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Define: What are Performance Rights Organization

http://www.datamusicata.com/journal/2009/4/17/performance-rights-organizations-what-about-them.html

How to join a PRO (Performing Rights Organization)

http://www.ehow.com/how_2038730_join-performing-rights-organization-pro.html

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