Trends may come and go, but TikTok is likely here to stay. With many people stuck inside during the pandemic and needing inspiration for new hobbies, they turned to TikTok for recipes, books, dances, fashion, makeup and hair,...more
On June 5, 2019, the Department of Justice announced its opening of a formal review of the antitrust consent decrees that have regulated music performance licensing by ASCAP and BMI since the 1940s. ...more
The Background: Since 1941, performing rights organizations ("PROs"), which pool the copyrights held by a work's composer, songwriter, and publisher and collectively license those rights to music users, have been subject to...more
The US Copyright Act of 1976 allows artists, writers, and musicians to “get back” grants of copyrights that had been previously licensed or assigned away. Specifically, artists can “terminate” their copyright arrangements...more
As we have previously blogged, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) rejected proposed modifications to the existing Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”) and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”) consent...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently confirmed an arbitration award in a dispute concerning the ownership of certain music rights, rejecting the argument that alleged legal errors constituted...more
Following the Copyright Royalty Board’s ruling to raise Pandora’s royalty rates, last week Pandora announced new licensing agreements with the country’s two largest performing-rights societies, Broadcast Music Inc. and the...more
On February 19, 2015, the District Court for the Southern District of New York issued final approval of a $58.5 million settlement between performing rights society SESAC (Society of European Stage Actors and Composers) and...more
From cassette tapes to CDs to Pandora and Spotify, innovations in the music field over the past two decades have drastically changed how people access music. Songwriters, however, are paid according to a system that has been...more