NMPA furious at Spotify, Amazon, Google and Pandora's plan to challenge CRB's mechanical rates

By Emmanuel Legrand

American songwriters and music publishers have described the decision by major streaming services to challenge the mechanical rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) as a "war on the songwriting community." ​Spotify, Google, Pandora and Amazon ​have filed notices of appeal of ​the decision from the CRB to increase mechanical rates paid by interactive streaming services by 44% by 2022. Apple Music, the second largest streaming service in the US, announced that it was not planning to appeal CRB's decision.

  The CRB made its decision in 2018 following a due process lasting two years. In a 2-1 split, royalty judges agreed to raise mechanical rates from 10.5% of revenue to 15.1% of revenue over four years. David Israelite, president/CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), said then that the 44% increase was a huge victory for songwriters and publishers and warned digital services that an appeal would be considered as “declaring war” on the songwriting community.

  While the four services filed separate notices, Google, Pandora and Spotify explained their position in a joint statement: "The CRB, in a split decision, recently issued the US mechanical statutory rates in a manner that raises serious procedural and substantive concerns. If left to stand, the CRB's decision harms both music licensees and copyright owners. Accordingly, we are asking the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to review the decision."

Bad actors

  The NMPA and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) published a joint statement in which they blast Spotify and Amazon's decision to appeal. Surprisingly, the statement does not mention Google or Pandora. In a podcast with MBW, Israelite said that Google or Pandora did "get a pass" because "it’s fairly clear to us that [Google and Pandora] didn’t want to to appeal, and are only doing so to protect their interests because Spotify and Amazon [objected]."

  Israelite went on to label Spotify and Amazon as "the bad actors." He singled out Apple Music "for accepting the CRB decision and continuing its practice of being a friend to songwriters."

  NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison said Amazon and Spotify's decision to appeal was "unfortunate," pointing out that "many songwriters have found it difficult to stay in the profession in the era of streaming music. You cannot feed a family when you earn hundreds of dollars for millions of streams."

  Herbison added: "Spotify specifically continues to try and depress royalties to songwriters around the globe as illustrated by their recent moves in India. Trying to work together as partners toward a robust future in the digital music era is difficult when any streaming company fails to recognise the value of a songwriter’s contribution to their business.”

Protecting CRB's decision

  For Israelite, the CRB’s final determination "gave songwriters only their second meaningful rate increase in 110 years," but "instead of accepting the CRB’s decision which still values songs less than their fair market value, Spotify and Amazon have declared war on the songwriting community by appealing that decision."

  Israelite invited "every songwriter and every fan of music [to] stand up and take notice." He added: “No amount of insincere and hollow public relations gestures such as throwing parties or buying billboards of congratulations or naming songwriters 'geniuses' can hide the fact that these big tech bullies do not respect or value the songwriters who make their businesses possible."

  The NMPA announced that in view of the streaming services' decision to appeal, it would also file a notice of appeal "to protect CRB's decision."