SGA president speaks out on creators' payments from streaming services

June 26, 2024 -- Bloomberg Law reported that the compromise between musicians and streaming services over songwriters’ royalties is eroding six years after the Music Modernization Act (MMA) aimed to redefine music copyright law.

Spotify's March reclassification of its premium service sparked a lawsuit, legislative push and FTC complaint from the music publishing industry. Trust is eroding as songwriters, publishers and streaming services vie for larger shares of a maturing market, with insufficient revenue to satisfy all parties.

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has demanded legislative changes, including allowing songwriters to opt out of the blanket license and negotiate rates independently, a move that could disrupt the current system.

While opting out of the blanket license would improve songwriters' control over streamers, this change may not equally benefit both major players and smaller entities, said Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of America. “Unless it’s one of the giant music publishers, this won’t work for independent creators, because we don’t have any leverage to make outside deals with the streaming services,” Carnes said.

Meanwhile, indie songwriters criticize the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) for its handling of royalties. The MLC, operating since 2021, faces scrutiny over its effectiveness and transparency in distributing unmatched royalties which, instead of being held for songwriters who are owed the money, gets split between the large labels, publishers and others after a period of time. Read more here .