Pro Music Rights accuses US music licensees of 'running an illegal cartel'

By Emmanuel Legrand

 

Privately-owned US performance rights society Pro Music Rights has filed an antitrust lawsuit in the federal court of Connecticut against various organisations representing the interests of US broadcasters and digital platforms for "running an illegal cartel for the performance rights of musical works."

 

  The suit names as Defendants the Digital Media Association, National Religious Broadcasters Music License Committee, Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), which represents and negotiates on behalf of most commercial broadcasters in the United States licensing terms, the National Association of American Wineries, and Television Music License Committee.

 

  “Litigation was not our first choice but something had to be done to stop the buyers from bullying PMR out of the market in flagrant violation of antitrust laws," said PMR CEO Jake Noch in a statement. “We kept going back to the buyers to offer them a public performance license. Radio, TV, music steaming services – they all collectively and uniformly ignored us in a group boycott for the past two years."

 

Appetite for litigation

  He added that "the buyers never intended to do business with PMR, and they have been running a cartel in the industry.”

 

  PMR has also recently sued 10 music streaming services (Apple, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Spotify, 7Digital, Deezer, iHeartMedia, Rhapsody and SoundCloud) in New York federal court for copyright infringement, and has also filed a $1bn lawsuit against Spotify in the District Court for the Middle District of Florida in November 2019.

 

  Pro Music Rights claims to represent over two millions music works and to command a 7.4% market share, based on the number of musical works, a figure that has never been confirmed through independent sources. PMR also claims that "100% of the license usage fees Pro Music Rights collects goes directly to songwriters, composers and music publishers as royalties."

 

  Pro Music Rights is represented by Richard Gora and Sinead Rafferty, Partners at Gora LLC.