What is a Composition?

A composition is the collection of notes, melodies, phrases, rhythms, lyrics, and/or harmonies that make up the essence of the work. The term “composition” typically refers to an instrumental musical piece, while the term “song” usually applies to musical works accompanied by lyrics. Though the two terms technically refer to different things, they will be used somewhat interchangeably in this guide because they function in the exact same way in the music business.

There is no concrete definition of a composition, only the aforementioned terms we use to characterize it. However, there are criteria that a composition must meet in order to be protected under American copyright law. The song must be fixed in a tangible medium (such as notes written on a sheet of paper or a sound recording on tape or in a digital file) and must be an original expression. Once these requirements are met, compositions can be licensed to interested buyers through a music publisher. It is important to note that this process is independent from that of the licensing of sound recordings, which are separate copyrights created by artists and are usually owned by record labels.

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In this newsletter:

Spotify has won a long-running court case, in which it was accused of streaming Eminem's music without permission. The case was launched in 2019 by the rapper's publisher, Eight Mile Style, which said Spotify failed to correctly license Eminem's work.

The legal battle between the Isaac Hayes estate and the Donald Trump election campaign continues. A judge has issued an injunction ordering Trump to not use ‘Hold On, I'm Coming’ at his rallies and Hayes’ son has disputed the campaign’s claim about its BMI license.

Brazil remains a major music market with ongoing growth in 2024, Argentina’s industry grew 8.2% in 2023, and Spain’s recorded music revenue surged 16.6% in the first half of 2024.

Now, the details...

Exploration Weekly - September 6, 2024
Compiled by Ana Berberana

Spotify Wins Case Over 'Billions' of Eminem Streams

Spotify has won a long-running court case, in which it was accused of streaming Eminem's music without permission. The case was launched in 2019 by the rapper's publisher, Eight Mile Style, which said Spotify failed to correctly license Eminem's work. They sued the music company for approximately £30m, saying that the star had never received full payment for songs like Lose Yourself and Without Me, which have been "streamed on Spotify billions of times”. But a judge in Tennessee has ruled that Spotify will not be liable for any lost royalties, despite finding that Spotify did not have a license to stream the tracks. The court also concluded that, if Spotify were to be found guilty of copyright infringement, any penalty would have to be paid by Kobalt Music Group, which collected royalties on behalf of Eminem's publisher. The case illustrates how confusing the business of administering music rights has become in the era of streaming. When Eight Mile Style sued Spotify in 2019, it said the company had "acted deceptively" by pretending to have licenses for 243 Eminem songs, when it did not. It further accused the company of making "random payments" for hits that had been streamed hundreds of millions of times, saying the money only accounted for "a fraction of those streams”. Spotify responded to the lawsuit in 2020 by blaming Kobalt Music Publishing, a company that administers the rights to hundreds of thousands of songs, as well as collecting royalties for rights-holders. In court documents, Spotify alleged that Kobalt had misled it into believing it controlled the administration of Eight Mile’s catalog, when that was not the case. The company added that Eight Mile had "never once questioned" Spotify's permission to stream Eminem's songs, despite accepting royalty payments from the service since its US launch in 2011. “Eight Mile instead suggests that it was somehow ‘duped’ by Spotify into thinking the compositions were properly licensed to explain away why it knowingly accepted and deposited royalty payments while remaining silent for years," said the company's lawyers.

Judge Orders Trump to Stop Playing Isaac Hayes Song Amid Dispute Over Date of BMI Exclusion

A US judge has issued an injunction ordering the Donald Trump election campaign to stop using the Isaac Hayes written song ‘Hold On, I'm Coming’ at his rallies in response to legal action filed by the Hayes estate. It comes as Hayes’ son, Isaac Hayes III, disputed claims by the Trump campaign that even recent use of the song was covered by a license from collecting society BMI. It seems likely that the Trump campaign wasn't planning on using the song anymore anyway. Despite initially opposing the injunction, Trump attorney Ronald Coleman didn’t seem too bothered that it had been issued, telling reporters, “the campaign has no interest in annoying or hurting anyone. And if the Hayes family feels it hurts or annoys them, that’s fine, we’re not going to force the issue”. The Hayes estate accuses the Trump campaign, and various other organizations that have hosted Trump speeches, of copyright infringement for playing the Sam & Dave version of ‘Hold On, I'm Coming’ at their events. Legal reps for the campaign filed a formal response to the estate’s lawsuit at the weekend, basically echoing everything that had been said in an earlier filing from co-defendant the Republican National Committee. Both Trump and the RNC insist that they were licensed to use ‘Hold On, I'm Coming’ at their events via their BMI licenses, with the US collecting society representing both Hayes and his co-writer on the song, David Porter. The song has now been excluded from that license, however they claim that only happened last month and, therefore, prior to that use of the track was legit. Hayes’ son Isaac Hayes III has responded to that claim on Twitter. Although the estate only formally excluded ‘Hold On, I'm Coming’ from the BMI political entity license last month, Porter excluded it in June. Hayes III has posted a 4 Jun letter from BMI to the Trump campaign confirming that the song had been excluded at the request of Porter. Which means that change to the license preceded the big Republican National Convention in July, where the song was performed.

Brazil’s Recorded Music Industry Up 21% in First Half of 2024

Brazil was the ninth biggest recorded-music market in the world last year according to the IFPI, with strong domestic growth and increasing cultural clout globally. 2024 is continuing in that vein according to figures published by label body Pro-Música Brasil. Recorded-music revenues from streams and sales grew by 21% in the first half of this year to R$1.44bn ($256.4m at current exchange rates). Well, we say ‘streams and sales’ – 99.2% of these revenues came from streaming, so it’s absolutely dominating the market. Pro-Música Brasil noted that streaming subscription revenues were up 28.4% in the first half of this year to R$995m ($177.2m) thus accounting for nearly 70% of the overall market. Ad-supported streaming revenues grew by 6.6% to R$436m ($77.6m) meanwhile. The 28.4% growth in subscriptions is particularly encouraging, since those revenues grew 21.9% in 2023. An acceleration of paid-streaming growth in one of the industry’s key ‘high-potential’ markets will be welcomed by rightsholders. “The 21% growth in the sector’s digital and physical revenues directly reflects the efforts and investments made by recording companies, both in the production of musical content nationally, as well as in the marketing, promotion and career development of thousands of Brazilian artists,” said president Paulo Rosa.

Argentina’s Recorded Music Industry Expanded by 8.2% in 2023

Brazil isn’t the only South American nation turning in significant recorded music growth, as the Argentinian music industry expanded by 8.2% in 2023. That’s according to a newly released Spanish-language report from the Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (CAPIF) trade body, which based its calculations on “constant values” for the Argentine peso. Diving into the 70-page resource, digital made up 74.6% of Argentina’s 2023 industry revenue, marking something of a contrast with Brazil (where nearly all recorded revenue derives from streaming) as well as the U.S. (where 86% of revenue came from streaming and downloads in H1 2024). By category, besides the nearly 75% behind digital, the Argentinian recorded music space generated 8.2% of its 2023 revenue from physical products such as vinyl, 16.4% from public performances (collected by AADI-CAPIF), and the remaining 0.8% from sync and other sources. Elaborating on those points, vinyl, notwithstanding its ongoing global resurgence, produced 57.5% of Argentina’s physical sales during 2023, against 42.3% for CDs and the remaining 0.2% for music DVDs, the breakdown shows. Though vinyl’s share has increased from 33.8% in 2019, it’s still down from 2021 (61%). On the streaming side, 64.5% of the category’s revenue derived from subscriptions last year, CAPIF indicated.

Spain’s Recorded Music Revenue Up Nearly 17% in First Six Months

The Spanish recorded music industry is having a promising year, so far. PROMUSICAE (Productores de Música de España), which represents more than 95% of Spain’s recording industry, recently released half-year figures — and they continue to ascend. The recorded music industry has generated a total revenue of 249.8 million euros ($277.3 million) during this period, reflecting an impressive growth rate of 16.6% compared to the same period in 2023 when the income stood at 214.3 million euros ($237.9 million). “It is very encouraging that in this first part of the year the figures growth of recorded music in Spain keep over 16%, as this highlights that the efforts and talent of Spanish artists and recording companies bear fruit, and music continues grabbing the interest of the public,” said Antonio Guisasola, president of PROMUSICAE. The digital market remains a catalyst for this growth, experiencing a significant rise of 18.8%. Digital formats now account for 89.7% of the industry’s turnover, totaling 224.15 million euros ($248.82 million). That’s nearly all streaming, which captured 88.8% of the total market and generated revenues of 221.86 million euros ($246.28 million) — up 19.1% compared to the first half of 2023. Audio streaming represented 83.5% of all consumption and contributed 185.22 million euros ($205.6 million) to the industry. Video streaming accounted for 36.64 million euros ($40.67 million), totaling 16.5% of streaming.

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