Article: Judges in the US have hinted that the mechanical royalty rate paid to publishers and songwriters for vinyl sales should rise. The major labels’ lawyers have come out swinging.

Music Business Worldwide report…

Here’s the introduction

It’s a process awash with legalese – to the point of tedium.

But there’s a very important debate going on in the US over certain types of mechanical royalty rates paid to songwriters right now, and you need to know about it.

That’s partly because it’s pretty fascinating stuff, and partly because it prods at some tender areas of the power balance dominating the modern music industry.

Fear not: You won’t have to wade through all the paperwork; MBW has done that for you. (So. Much. Paperwork.)

But trust us, there are some startling nuggets in this story.

For example, last Tuesday (April 5) the three major record companies jointly filed an EMERGENCY MOTION with the Copyright Royalty Board in the US.

The trigger for that EMERGENCY MOTION: the CRB is currently mulling whether or not to raise the amount songwriters get paid in mechanical royalties from the sale of physical music (CD and vinyl) and downloads in the States.

Filing an EMERGENCY MOTION in a process like this is the legal equivalent of waving one’s arms around and shouting, “Whoa! Whoa!”. So:

• What were the record companies “whoa-ing” about?
• Why has it left some songwriter advocates reeling?
• And will composers ultimately get paid more in royalties for CD, vinyl and download sales in the US?

Here, MBW does our best to fill you in, and answer these questions…

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Judges in the US have hinted that the mechanical royalty rate paid to publishers and songwriters for vinyl sales should rise. The major labels’ lawyers have come out swinging.