Exploration Weekly - Puerto Rico Remains an Underrated Powerhouse in the Music Industry / House Judiciary Committee Asks Copyright Office to Examine PROs / IFPI Warns That EU ‘Risks Falling Behind’ for Music Growth

In countries outside the U.S., where public performances compensate the songwriter or music publisher when their song is broadcasted publicly, neighboring rights compensate the recording artist or record label associated with the sound recording of the song.

Neighboring rights do not currently exist within the U.S.—that is, sound recording copyright owners do not receive any royalties from the broadcast of sound recordings in the United States. The U.S. is one of only four developed countries in the world that don’t mandate traditional performance royalties for sound recordings — the other three being North Korea, Iran, and China.

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In this newsletter:

• Puerto Rico Is Officially a Powerhouse: Separated From the US, This Tiny Island Is Still the Third-Largest Exporter of Top 10 Singles Globally
• House Judiciary Committee Asks Copyright Office to Examine PROs, Citing ‘Difficult to Assess’ Royalty Distributions
• IFPI Warns That EU ‘Risks Falling Behind’ for Music Growth
• Legal Dispute Over Talk-Box Vocals in Dua Lipa Hit Allowed to Proceed

Puerto Rico remains an underrated powerhouse in the music industry. Separated from the US, this tiny island was still the third-largest exporter of top 10 singles worldwide in 2023.

The House Judiciary Committee expresses concerns from performance licensees about the "proliferation of PROs" and lack of transparency around the distribution of royalties.

The IFPI’s latest report warns that the EU’s music industry risks falling behind in global growth, despite domestic success.

Now, the details...

Exploration Weekly - September 13, 2024
Compiled by Ana Berberana

Puerto Rico Is Officially a Powerhouse: Separated From the US, This Tiny Island Is Still the Third-Largest Exporter of Top 10 Singles Globally

New data from the global recording industry trade group IFPI reveals that Puerto Rico — if separated from the United States and treated as a separate country — still ranked third on a list of exporters of top 10 singles worldwide last year. In fact, Puerto Rico was barely edged out for number two by Colombia. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States dominated that list, and it isn’t even close — 113 singles from the US reached the Top 10 worldwide in 2023. But Puerto Rico came in at an impressive third place with 45, and only one hit behind Colombia at 46. And that’s still miles ahead of the UK’s 29, followed by South Korea’s 16. Puerto Rico is actually an extreme powerhouse in the music industry in its own right, even when viewed in a bubble and not as an extension of the US, as a US territory. Already, the country is top-ranked against huge nations like the US, UK, and Japan in terms of its industry presence. The US (including Puerto Rico) simply overwhelmed the tallies in 2023, making an extreme global impact with hits from household names like Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and Bad Bunny.

House Judiciary Committee Asks Copyright Office to Examine PROs, Citing ‘Difficult to Assess’ Royalty Distributions

The House Judiciary Committee has sent a letter to the Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, requesting an examination of “concerns” and “emerging issues” related to performing rights organizations (PROs). In the letter, signed by the committee’s chairmen Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Darrell Issa as well as member Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, two particular areas of concern are addressed: the “proliferation” of new PROs and the lack of transparency about the distribution of general licensing revenue. The letter notes the latter issue is of particular importance to independent artists and smaller publishers. “It is difficult to assess how efficiently PROs are distributing general licensing revenue based on publicly available data,” the letter reads. “For example, it is difficult to determine how accurately lesser known and independent artists as well as smaller publishers are being compensated compared to widely popular artists and major publishers.” Concerns around transparency at the PROs are not new. The National Music Publishers’ Association, the trade organization representing music publishers, has spoken publicly about it, as have a number of individual songwriters and publishers over the years. These concerns grew last year after BMI, one of the largest PROs in the country, switched its business model from non-profit to for-profit and was acquired by private equity firm New Mountain Capital. At the end of BMI’s fiscal year 2022, Billboard reported that “for the first time ever, it hardly contains any financial information.”

IFPI Warns That EU ‘Risks Falling Behind’ for Music Growth

Global labels body the IFPI published its latest report yesterday, focusing on the recorded music market in the European Union, as well as the export success of its artists. Headline findings include the fact that when adjusted for inflation, the EU’s €5.2bn of recorded-music revenues in 2023 were only 61% of the industry’s peak year in 2001. Also interesting: in the 22 EU countries where the IFPI collects annual chart data, 60% of the top 10 singles came from domestic artists, over-indexing the 47% in non-EU markets. However, the report also warns of an under-performance in terms of global exports, with US and Latin / Central American artists to the fore. “The data in this report shows us that other parts of the world are developing and growing rapidly and the EU risks falling behind,” said CEO Victoria Oakley. The proposed answer is for European policymakers to act on the lobbying recommendations of the music industry: specifically on AI regulation and intellectual-property rights enforcement.

Legal Dispute Over Talk-Box Vocals in Dua Lipa Hit Allowed to Proceed

A lawsuit filed by “one of the world’s top talk box artists” against Dua Lipa, and her label Warner Music, over the talk box vocal performance he created for her hit ‘Levitating’ has been allowed to proceed. The dispute is over the use of Bosko Kante’s vocal performance on remixes of ‘Levitating’, which he says was never approved. Lipa’s team tried to get the lawsuit dismissed by arguing that Kante had “failed to specify which exact portions of his recordings were used in the remixes”, which meant he had not sufficiently proven the ‘substantial similarity’ requirement for a copyright infringement claim to proceed. However, Judge Hernán D Vera has now rejected that argument. He ruled that Kante had “adequately pled a copyright infringement claim by alleging that ‘all or substantially all’ of his copyrighted recording - ie his actual voice - was used in the remixes without his permission”. That was sufficient for his lawsuit to proceed, Vera added, stating there was no requirement on the producer to “identify, second-by-second, which portions were used”.

Random Ramblings

• Taylor Swift becomes first artist to win Video Of The Year three years in a row at the VMAs.
• Man charged with generating over $10 million in streaming revenue with AI bots.
• Artists who replaced themselves at no. 1 on the Official UK Singles Chart.
• Meet the electronic musicians collaborating with nature through bio-sonification.
• Linkin Park embarks on a new chapter with new band members.