Last week, Spotify was rumored to be planning a series of “town halls” to explain away the company’s controversial decision (along with Amazon, Pandora and Google) to appeal the new royalty rates due to songwriters.
On Tuesday, the National Music Publishers Association and Nashville Songwriters Association International announced their own “town hall” in response to inform the music industry “what’s happening in Washington” when four of the five largest streaming companies have decided that fractions of a penny to the creators of the product that’s drawn billions of dollars in revenue for them is too much to handle.
The Nashville Songwriter Town Hall will take place on April 10 between 3:30pm and 5pm and is a response to Spotify’s rumored “songwriter town hall to explain why they’re taking you to court to lower your rates. Since they don’t seem to be moving forward [with the meeting], the NMPA and NSAI are inviting you and Spotify to discuss the move instead,” according to Billboard.
The court action by Spotify, Amazon, Pandora and Google – basically every major streaming company in the US other than Apple, which has pointedly refused to join – comes after the Copyright Royalty Board made a new determination of so-called “mechanical rates” paid to songwriters when their music is played. A higher rate for mechanicals lead to the streaming giants suing in appeal.
How did a bald Swedish bastard ever get to control music? That’s the real question!