Exploration Weekly - 100+ Indie Distributors Sign Up for The MLC’s DURP / Over 600 Musicians Defend the Internet Archive / Musi Accuses Apple of Collusion

For over a century now, American copyright law has worked to create and maintain a system that ensures copyright owners are compensated for the use of their intellectual properties. At the same time, the system also works to provide the maximum availability of compositions to individuals that may wish to recreate and distribute them. Artists and producers have been reproducing compositions since the beginning of the music business. Obtaining the rights to create these physical reproductions is referred to as mechanical licensing.

Our guide was written to provide a comprehensive overview of the history, purpose, and process of mechanical licensing.

Check out some of our other guides on music industry topics at Exploration Learn, or subscribe to our YouTube channel for more information.

In this newsletter:

• 100+ Indie Distributors in 20 Countries Have Now Signed Up for The MLC’s Data Portal for Unmatched Royalties
• Over 600 Musicians Ride to the Defense of the Internet Archive
• Apple Colluded With Music Industry While Pretending to be Neutral in App Dispute, Claims Musi
• Ed Sheeran Scores Another Legal Win As Appeals Court Rejects Rehearing Push in ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Infringement Battle

The MLC has enrolled over 100 independent distributors from 20+ countries in its Distributor Unmatched Royalties Portal (DURP). The program helps identify and pay unpaid mechanical royalties to independent songwriters on streaming platforms.

The Internet Archive’s “Great 78 Project,” which digitized over 400,000 old 78rpm records, faces a copyright infringement lawsuit from labels. In its defense, the Archive has enlisted support from 600+ musicians, including Tegan and Sara and Amanda Palmer, through a “Save the Archive” campaign.

Music streaming app Musi is still working hard to get itself reinstated on Apple’s App Store, having been kicked out in September following complaints by YouTube and the music industry. In a new filing, Musi says Apple failed to follow its own process for dealing with app disputes.

Now, the details...

Exploration Weekly - December 13, 2024
Compiled by Ana Berberana

100+ Indie Distributors in 20 Countries Have Now Signed Up for The MLC’s Data Portal for Unmatched Royalties

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) says it has now enrolled more than 100 independent distributors in over 20 countries in a program to identify unpaid mechanical royalties owed on music played on streaming platforms. The MLC describes the Distributor Unmatched Royalties Portal (DURP) as “a highly efficient and effective way to identify independent, self-administered songwriters who are not yet receiving their digital audio mechanical royalties in the United States.” Among the distributors who have signed up are Believe, CD Baby, DistroKid, Empire, ONErpm, The Orchard, and TuneCore. The MLC says it has distributed “millions of dollars” in previously unpaid royalties that have been identified and paid out so far. The portal gives distributors access to a subset of The MLC’s publicly available data that’s relevant to songs they have distributed, enabling them to identify customers who may be entitled to back royalties. Those distributors can then notify their customers and encourage them to sign up as MLC members and register their songs. If a distributor also provides publishing admin services, the customer can elect to have their royalties collected through the distributor. “Surpassing 100 distributor partners worldwide is a testament to the value the DURP provides to independent creators and their distributors,” said Dae Bogan, The MLC’s Head of Third-Party Partnerships, who leads the DURP initiative. “By simplifying the process of identifying and claiming unmatched royalties, we’re helping ensure every dollar reaches its rightful owner.”

Over 600 Musicians Ride to the Defense of the Internet Archive

Popular website the Internet Archive provoked the wrath of labels with its ‘Great 78 Project’, which digitised old 78rpm records to make the music available for modern listeners. Labels including Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group sued the website for copyright infringement in August 2023 over the project, which included more than 400k recordings at the time. Its latest response to the labels’ lawsuit enlists more than 600 musicians in its defence, publishing a letter signed by them on a ‘Save the Archive’ website. Tegan and Sara, Amanda Palmer, Deerhoof, Kathleen Hanna and Yacht are among the more prominent names signing the letter. “The music industry has a moral imperative to keep its history archived, but we can’t trust it to do so. Old records are falling to pieces, and without proper digital preservation, they’ll be gone for good,” it claims. “Artists and labels alike should partner with valuable cultural stewards like the Internet Archive – not sue them. It’s time to support nonprofit music preservation to ensure that our music and our stories aren’t lost to history.” The letter actually goes well beyond the specific issue of the Great 78 Project. It calls for venues to let artists keep 100% of their merch sales at concerts; for transparent ticketing practices; and for “fair royalties for streams”. In other words, it ties together “immediate and sustained action to protect artists’ futures, and the long-term preservation of their works”.

Apple Colluded With Music Industry While Pretending to be Neutral in App Dispute, Claims Musi

Music streaming app Musi says that its future on every single Apple device in the world was decided, in secret, “through backroom conversations” involving “Apple, YouTube and several music industry conglomerates”. Because, Musi adds, while Apple positions itself as a “neutral party” when exercising the “unprecedented control” it enjoys over the Apple App Store, in fact it uses that control to favour the interests of certain companies over others. This is according to Musi’s latest court filing in its legal battle with Apple, which began when the app was kicked out of Apple’s App Store in September. That was as a result of the secret deals between Apple and the music industry, says Musi, and means that the company’s growth has been halted - going from an average of 886,148 new users a month to zero. Musi now wants the courts to grant a preliminary injunction against Apple ordering it to immediately reinstate its app while the legal dispute is decided, during which process Musi hopes to show judges why its app should be permanently reinstated. Musi went legal in October in a bid to get its app back into Apple’s store. Apple then responded insisting that it’s allowed to remove apps - including the Musi app - “at any time, with or without cause”, but that it only did so in this case following “numerous, credible complaints” that Musi was infringing copyright. Musi operates by pulling in music from YouTube rather than having its own licensing deals in place for music, something that record labels and music publishers argue both infringes copyright and breaches YouTube’s terms, a position confirmed by YouTube itself.

Ed Sheeran Scores Another Legal Win As Appeals Court Rejects Rehearing Push in ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Infringement Battle

A federal court has officially denied a request to rehear an appeal of a copyright infringement complaint centering on Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit just recently handed down the corresponding order, after siding with Ed Sheeran and other defendants at the top of November. One of multiple copyright complaints levied over Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” this particular action came from Structured Asset Sales (SAS). The company reportedly acquired an interest in the classic work from Clef Michael Townsend, the son of co-writer and co-producer Ed Townsend. Technically distinct from the Townsend estate’s similar suit, the SAS litigation initiated in 2018 and was dismissed with prejudice in May 2023 – the same month in which Sheeran beat the Townsend action at trial. The presiding judge chalked up the SAS dismissal to the allegedly unprotectable nature of the chord progressions in question. Besides affirming the unprotectable determination, the appeals court concurred with prior findings that the plaintiff could only allege infringement (and introduce related evidence) with regard to components of the “Let’s Get It On” sheet music submitted to the Copyright Office. Among other things, that narrowed the case’s scope to exclude the recording’s bass line, which doesn’t appear in the Copyright Office submission. “[W]e affirm the district court’s exclusion of evidence—including expert testimony—about anything beyond the four corners of the Deposit Copy,” the appellate court summed up in early November, “because the scope of a copyright in a musical work registered under the Copyright Act of 1909…is limited to the elements found in the copy of the work deposited with the Copyright Office.”

Random Ramblings

• Two new health trials test music’s ability to treat anxiety.
• Kendrick Lamar replaces himself at No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart with ‘TV Off’.
• Music inside video games - rights & discovery.
• Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ reclaims the No. 1 spot on Billboard Hot 100 for the 15th week.
• Bruno Mars breaks Spotify’s record for most monthly listeners.