An Insanely Detailed Discussion About the Music Modernization Act
The Digital Music News Podcast
Release Date: 10/17/2018
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After a string of 'fake stream' scandals involving mega-stars like French Montana and G-Eazy, a serious question percolated within the music industry: how real are Spotify's stream counts? Vice went underground and found a shadowy network of 'underground stream farms' that fabricate play counts, raising serious questions about Spotify's numbers. Michael K. Williams, who led Vice's investigation, declared that the "entire industry has been compromised." But how corrupted are streaming numbers at Spotify -- or Apple Music, Amazon Music, or YouTube? We asked a company that has developed a...
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You Will Make More Money as a Musician — If You Listen to This Podcast
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Emily White is one of the foremost experts in the music industry and an authority on how musicians can maximize the earnings from their music. She's worked at the largest companies in the business, managed top indie artists, and teaches music business ins-and-outs at New York University. She's also the author of the book, How to Build a Sustainable Music Career and Collect All Revenue Streams.
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Meet Lady A, the Black Singer Whose Name Got Taken by Lady Antebellum
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When it comes to trainwrecks, this one takes the cake. Just a few weeks ago, the ultra-successful country-pop trio Lady Antebellum decided to change their name, citing newfound sensitivity towards racist overtones. But Lady Antebellum's new name, Lady A, was already taken by Seattle-based black blues singer Anita White, who's been using the moniker since the late 1980s. Lady A met with the newly-named Lady A and things seemed to be ironed out. But White says that was far from the reality'.
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Meet the Guys Taking Vinyl Mastering Out of the Stone Age
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Despite a vinyl record comeback that started nearly 15 years ago, the companies manufacturing vinyl are still scrambling to get back on the field. Old, laborious processes are being revived, but many of the format's experts are no longer around. And younger mastering engineers have little idea how to master content for vinyl records. But what if mastering engineers could master for vinyl, without actually having to constantly test their tweaks on vinyl platters?
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Spotify Probably Owes You More Money — Here's How to Get It
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Jeff Price is one of the music industry's foremost experts on music copyright and artist royalties. He's also a huge critic of Spotify and the recently-passed Music Modernization Act (MMA). One reason is that there's actually another streaming royalty that is owed to most artists and songwriters... they just don't know about it. He blames that fact on corrupt legislators and music companies. So how do you find out about this missing royalty, and more importantly, get paid on it?
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What does it really take to get to the top of the Billboard charts?
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How to Protect Yourself From the Copyright Trolls
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"Certainly, we're in the era of copyright trolling," music industry attorney James Sammataro flatly states in this edition of the Digital Music News Podcast.
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Stop Chasing Playlists and Start Building a Music Career
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Lucidious was a talented musician with a growing fanbase and a well-paying day job. But he also couldn't get onto a Spotify playlist to save his life.
info_outlineIf you want an even deeper dive, Jeff Price of Audiam (who's being interviewed) compiled a highly detailed review of the Music Modernization Act on Digital Music News. It basically explains everything.
After you hear this podcast + read this guide, you'll hopefully have a far deeper understanding of this bill (and know what to do next).
Also, here's a quick annotation of this podcast, so you can skip around to various parts.
0:00 Intro
1:54 Interview with Jeff Price begins
3:57 What the hell is the Music Modernization Act (and why do we need it)?
6:17 What exactly is a 'streaming service,' and what are the different types of streaming licenses?
8:11 How does the publishing work with Pandora?
11:04 What is a Public Performance?
13:35 What is a 'Reproduction License' (i.e., Mechanical License) - and why is it so important?
27:10 Why does Congress need to get involved?
28:00 Where did the giant problem begin?
30:00 'The recording part was figured out'
31:02 Did Spotify just not know about the licenses they needed to pay?
37:00 'So they put together a solution...' (What the MMA solves + other problems this bill addresses)
40:00 The basic rules of the MMA for streaming music services
41:30 International considerations.
42:51 So what's the big problem with the MMA?
51:20 Nitty-gritty details on the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC)
1:08:00 The missing metadata problem
1:12:20 Who's really generating most of the plays on streaming platforms?
1:18:00 How does the songwriter/artist/publisher now get paid by the MLC?
1:20:28 What steps should rights holders take before the creation of the MLC?
1:22:30 Pre-1972 oldies
1:27:10 Why doesn't AM/FM radio have to pay recording royalties?
1:31:30 A deeper history of music rights in the U.S.
1:33:50 Why can't we just figure out what's actually being played?
1:35:00 Goodbye + Outro
Thanks for listening! Please send us feedback at [email protected].