When it comes to copyright and technology, music is where the action is
Interview with Bill Rosenblatt
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The Music Modernization Act, signed by President Trump in October 2018, is the first substantial copyright legislation to pass Congress in decades and moves music licensing into the digital age. In 2021, artists will begin receiving royalties based on data supplied to the newly created Mechanical Licensing Collective, which anticipates more than $33 million in startup costs, all funded by the streaming services.
Establishment of the MLC is one of the most important copyright infrastructure projects undertaken this century, says Copyright and Technology NYC 2020 conference organizer Bill Rosenblatt. In January at the Fordham Law School in New York, the annual Copyright and Technology gathering will devote most of its morning programs to the Music Modernization Act and the MLC.
“I’m always interested in technology issues related to copyright for other media types, but my heart is in music right now, because that’s where the action is,” Rosenblatt tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
On Wednesday, January 15, 2020, Copyright & Technology NYC 2020 will open with a keynote address from David Israelite, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), and then feature a panel discussion on implementation of the MLC.
“David Israelite is one of the key negotiators who came up with this solution to the problem of streaming mechanicals and royalty payments. He negotiated with an organization called DMA, the Digital Music Association, which represents in this case streaming music services. We’re very happy to have him.
“After his keynote, we’re going to have a panel being set up by the MLC. Alisa Coleman, who is the chair of the MLC, is putting together a panel that’s going to have representatives from, among others, the Harry Fox Agency – think of them as the database operator that’s going to handle a lot of the functions of taking all these billions of datapoints of tracks being played on the streaming services and matching them to the musical compositions that are being played and then figuring out who needs to get paid, how much, and then issuing those payments.”
