The US Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced that songwriters will receive a 43.8% pay raise in mechanical rates for the period of 2018 to 2022, the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has announced.
The NMPA with the Nashville Songwriters Association had taken their case to the board in the interest of music publishers and songwriters against streaming giants Apple, Spotify, Google, Amazon and Pandora.
The rate increase is the largest in history, according to NMPA president and CEO David Israelite. “While an effective ratio of 3.82 to 1 is still not a fair split that we might achieve in a free market, it is the best songwriters have ever had under the compulsory license.,” Israelite said in a release. “The court also decided in our favor regarding a late fee which will force digital music services to pay songwriters faster or be subject to a significant penalty. The bottom line is this is the best mechanical rate scenario for songwriters in U.S. history which is critically important as interactive streaming continues to dominate the market.”
Despite the positive result for songwriters, the NMPA and NSA had argued for a per-stream rate for songwriters, which the board did not grant.
The somewhat obscure Copyright Royalty Board was established by an act of Congress to arbitrate rates and terms on statutory license royalties which are collected by the US Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.
