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Sony/ATV confirms its BMI relationship will continue
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 12 February 2014
Sony/ATV is staying with BMI, people. So, the panic is over, and people can get back to their lives safe in the knowledge that, well, erm, Sony/ATV is staying with BMI.
Speedy recap. The music publishers in the US have traditionally licensed most streaming services through their collecting societies – so principally ASCAP and BMI – rather than striking up direct deals with Pandora et al. However, the mood in the publishing sector of late has been to withdraw digital rights from the collective licensing system and to negotiate agreements direct, on the basis that away from the constraints of collective licensing they’ll get a better deal.
But Pandora in particular didn’t really want to do direct deals with the publishers – not yet, anyway – and so led a legal battle to stop the change in approach. Although it did enter into contingency negotiations with the big music publishing firms just in case.
The big questions were: could the publishers withdraw their digital rights from BMI and ASCAP blanket licences that still had some time left to run (the court said yes for BMI but no for ASCAP); and could they withdraw from the collective licensing system for digital but not broadcast, live and other public performance?
In the UK, a distinction has been made between digital and other rights when it comes to collective licensing, so that the majors can opt in for one and opt out of the other. But in the US a court ruled that, because of the wording of the ‘consent decrees’ that BMI and ASCAP operate under, that option was available. Withdraw in the digital domain, and you have to withdraw from everything else. Which is no fun at all. For the publishers.
Anyway, to that end Sony/ATV, the world’s biggest music publisher as a result of its concurrent control of EMI Music Publishing, has said it will continue to licence the half of its catalogue repped by BMI to digital services through the collective licensing system.
Sony/ATV boss man Marty Bandier says in Billboard: “Sony/ATV is proud to renew our relationship with BMI, which will continue to license the world’s largest and most relevant music catalogue to the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on music to drive their profits. In the current digital environment, it is critical that we reform the current system which does not fairly compensate songwriters and composers. BMI is an important player in this fight”.
Which is all lovely. Though, while both the Sony and Universal publishing companies have now said they’ll continue to licence songs through BMI (though the latter also has a direct deal with Pandora), word has it behind the scenes both are lobbying in Washington to have the aforementioned consent decrees amended to allow partial withdrawal from the collective licensing system in the future.
Meanwhile BMI CEO Michael O’Neill told reporters: “We appreciate the vote of confidence from Sony/ATV and the faith our writers and composers place in us every day as their trusted broker. It is our privilege to represent the incredible writers and musical works in the Sony/ATV repertoire. We are dedicated to the mission to fairly value the rights of publishers and songwriters in today’s market”.
