What is the Music Modernization Act? A 4-Part Series
- Omar Landery
- Feb 21, 2019
- 2 min read
Music Licensing has always been a major issue in the music community; whether there are concerns with obtaining licenses or claiming rights to songs, these disputes have effected songwriters, producers, and artists alike.
In October 2018, after years of multiple efforts by different organizations in the music industry, the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”) was signed into law; this is the FIRST substantial copyright legislation to pass in decades.
Our goal is to educate the music community on who the MMA effects, what changes are made to existing legislation, and what the MMA means for the future of music licensing.
MMA Purpose – Overview of 4 Part Series
Albeit imperfect, the Music Modernization Act overhauls an old law in an effort to keep up with a new digital music industry.
Under the MMA, songwriters, artists, publishers, and even producers are given more of what they deserve. For example, producers were never mentioned in any part of Copyright Law. The Allocation for Music Producers Act, ensures that producers and engineers receive credit as well as better compensation.
The Act also authorizes the goal of establishing a new collecting society, called the Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”). This Collective, comprised of members from major music publishers and performing-rights organizations will be funded by the digital music services, and grant blanket mechanical licenses for interactive streaming or digital downloads of musical works. The MLC collects and distributes royalties, identifies musical works and their owners for payment, and handles notices received from digital music providers. The MLC also ensures songwriters are compensated in a timely manner by ending the bulk Notice of Intent (“NOI”) process, and providing a publicly accessible database for song ownership information.
The MMA provides a new legal standard by directing the Copyright Royalty Board (“CRB”) to set rates for compulsory licenses based on the free-market value, and allows for performance rights organizations (“PROs”) to be assigned a random district judge -- as opposed to the assigned a PRO judge under the current law – for rate setting disputes. The MMA also allows for PROs and songwriters to present evidence to judges when setting performance royalty rates for songwriters and composers.
Check out Parts 1 through 4 below:
Part One: AMPA: Direct Payments from SoundExchange for Producers & Engineers Part Two: The Music Licensing Collective & Statutory Rates for Song Reproduction
Comments