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Compulsory Licenses

by Leo Versel Show/Hide

Compulsory License

Music and Radio services have to pay a mechanical royalty rate ($.091 per song per copy distributed) to use on their services
Artists have to allow for people to cover your music, whether you like it or not
Non-interactive services (Pandora, Satellite radio): Limited # of skips, playlist restrictions (can't pay more than 4 songs per artist), no advance playlists (can't know what's coming next)
Voluntary negotiations (Copyright Royalty Board) judges who set the rates web radio have to pay
Artist and label = compulsory (if the music has been publically distributed and is available for public consumption in any form, they have to allow for a compulsory license)
Songwriter = voluntary (artists, specifically songwriters, are allowed to have voluntary compulsory licenses if their music has not been licensed to a publishing house or has been distributed publically)
Interactive- anyone can voluntarily say no to having their music on the sites, users can do as many skips as they like and can pick and choose what they listen to (Spotify, Apple Music)
Taylor Swift: didn’t allow her music to be on Spotify, but her publishing (songwriting) still can be on Spotify
Songwriters with a publishing company still have to have a compulsory license and while they can't claim the music aspect of the cover, they can claim royalties from the songs because it is their lyrics
EX: “I Will Always Love You,” written by Dolly Parton, but famously covered by Whitney Houston. Dolly Parton would get all the royalties (about 50%) because she wrote the song.