On Monday, The Radio Music License Committee and Global Music Rights jointly announced that the conditions for their agreement to settle the long-running RMLC-GMR lawsuits have been satisfied, including a majority of commercial radio stations entering long-term licenses with GMR. The settlement agreement is now final, and the licenses that radio stations signed will begin on April 1, 2022.
“Global Music Rights stands for songwriters and the value of their music,” said GMR’s founder Irving Azoff. “I am proud of the GMR team for the hard work on behalf of songwriters in achieving this settlement. It is wonderful that GMR and thousands of radio stations coast to coast are partnered to bring great music to fans for many years.”
RMLC Chairman, Ed Atsinger III said, “This settlement puts an end to more than 5-years of litigation and represents a shared desire by both sides to find a way for radio stations and GMR to work together on a long-term basis without repeatedly resorting to litigation.”
For me, it is just another reason to stop playing music completely. The system has me bleeding from every orifice, and when the blood flow becomes too low to satiate the blood suckers, I get stabbed to increase it.
Thugs. No different than protection money on the south side of Chicago.
GMR has a lot of major classic hits, classic rock, and classic country writers. If you play The Eagles, Springsteen, Tom Petty, Randy Travis, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan, you are playing GMR music. Stations don’t have to use RMLC. They are free to negotiate on their own or don’t play GMR music. The advantage to using RMLC is they negotiate a group rate, sort of like company health insurance. The last few years of dealing with GMR has been a PITA because they don’t have the staff to handle calls from thousands of radio stations. This is welcome news.
Is this the beginning of the end of the RMLC? The RMLC did not, and could not, protect the interest of radio stations against GMR.
They have a tiny fraction of artists compared to BMI/ASCAP/SESAC, and their requested rates were 3-4 times that of our highest royalty rate now. GMR also refused to answer any of our questions. NO THANK YOU.
Wait. Didn’t GMR claim that the RMLC was an illegal antitrust violation? But now they negotiated with them? You can see how I’m confused… Anyone? Bueller?