On Thursday The National Music Publishers Association and The Nashville Songwriters Association released a statement attacking Spotify and Amazon for their decision to file an appeal to the recent Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to raise rates for streaming music by more than 44 percent.
The appeal was filed yesterday.
The rate increase came after a trial where the NMPA and NSAI faced tech giants Google, Apple, Amazon, Spotify and Pandora. The joint statement says the win for songwriters is now in jeopardy due to the streaming services’ filing.
NMPA President & CEO David Israelite said, “When the Music Modernization Act became law, there was hope it signaled a new day of improved relations between digital music services and songwriters. That hope was snuffed out Thursday when Spotify and Amazon decided to sue songwriters in a shameful attempt to cut their payments by nearly one-third. The CRB’s final determination gave songwriters only their second meaningful rate increase in 110 years. Instead of accepting the CRB’s decision which still values songs less than their fair market value, Spotify and Amazon have declared war on the songwriting community by appealing that decision.No amount of insincere and hollow public relations gestures such as throwing parties or buying billboards of congratulations or naming songwriters “geniuses” can hide the fact that these big tech bullies do not respect or value the songwriters who make their businesses possible.”
Israelite thanked Apple Music for accepting the decision and for being a friend to songwriters. “We will fight with every available resource to protect the CRB’s decision.”
NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison added this move by Amazon and Spotify is very unfortunate. “Many songwriters have found it difficult to stay in the profession in the era of streaming music. You cannot feed a family when you earn hundreds of dollars for millions of streams. Spotify specifically continues to try and depress royalties to songwriters around the globe as illustrated by their recent moves in India. Trying to work together as partners toward a robust future in the digital music era is difficult when any streaming company fails to recognize the value of a songwriter’s contribution to their business.”
NMPA is also filing a notice of appeal.
