In an official statement by Spotify, the digital music service acknowledged artists and songwriters have to make a living. The 2018 decision made by CRB does not account the cost from rights for videos and lyrics.
Spotify said, “The CRB judges set the new publishing rates by assuming that record labels would react by reducing their licensing rates, but their assumption is incorrect. However, we are willing to support an increase in songwriter royalties provided the license encompasses the right scope of publishing rights.”
On March 9, National Music Publishers’ Association president/CEO David Israelite released an official statement, “This week a historic trial that affects every songwriter begins in Washington, D.C. Two of the largest streaming services in the world are challenging a ruling that gave songwriters a 44%+ raise.”
On January 27, 2018, the Copyright Royalty Board decided to increase the songwriter rates for interactive streaming. The original ruling sided with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International.Songwriters were hoping for a per-stream rate, while the other streaming companies were arguing to reduce the pay rates.The pay rate decided upon would be based on a percentage of revenue and the total amount of content costs; per Variety.
