Below-Market Rates, Old DMCA Provisions Hurt Musicians, RIAA CEO Says

While music sales have been "skyrocketing," revenue for creators isn't keeping pace, wrote RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman in a blog post Tuesday. In 2015, consumers listened to "hundreds of billions of audio and music streams through on-demand ad-supported digital services like YouTube," but he said revenue has been "meager" and the problem is worsening. Sherman said major technology companies, which he didn't identify, are essentially usurping the revenue that should go to music creators by taking advantage of "outdated, market-distorting government rules and regulations that either pay below fair-market rates, or avoid paying for that music altogether." Sherman cited the exemption AM/FM broadcasters get from paying artists and labels, satellite's below-market rate standard, "and the hopelessly outdated 'notice and takedown' provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which many services have distorted to rake in billions of dollars of revenue on the backs of artists, songwriters and labels." RIAA reported that in 2015, for the first year ever, streaming was the largest component of music revenue, at 34 percent of the market and slightly higher than downloads. Total recorded-music revenue rose 0.9 percent to $7 billion from the prior year, and "continued growth of revenues from streaming services offset declines in sales of digital downloads and physical product," RIAA said.