Sony artists asked to contact label over royalty concerns

The Nashville Songwriters AssociationInternational(NSAI) has reached out to Sony Music artists and songwriters in the wake of a debate affecting royalties.

Sony Music is involved in discussions with the latest Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)proceeding, the mechanical, streaming and download royalty rate-setting process that occurs every five years.

According to the NSAI, Sony’s private proposal suggests a decrease in mechanical royalty payments for songwriters from 2016-2020, and those in interactive streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify.

“Sony does not pay these royalties to songwriters, the subscription streaming services and their customers do,” reads aletterto artists. “So why are they even involved? Our conclusion is they want to lower payments to all songwriters, including SME artists who write their own songs.”

The letter, signed by NSAI executive director Bart Herbison, states: “Sony’s position is both insensitive and indefensible. Sony reportedly owning a part of a streaming company themselves, makes their position even more disturbing.”

The letter calls for Sony to go public with their rate proposal and for all Sony-affiliated artists to contact the major to express their concerns.

In December, the CRB announced Pandora would have to pay artists and rightsholders more per play in 2016. Pandora had pushed for a lower rate from $0.0014to $0.0011; meanwhile, SoundExchange, which represents record labels and artists in the US, argued for a higher rate of $0.0025. The new rate meets in the middle at $0.0017 per play.

Any changes to the US rates by the CRB will not have a direct impact on the tariffs that apply in Australia.