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RIAA Wants Artist Royalties Lowered

Posted by Zonk on from the why-should-they-get-paid-it-is-not-their-music dept.

laughingcoyote writes "The RIAA has asked the panel of federal government Copyright Royalty Judges to lower royalties paid to publishers and songwriters. They're specifically after digital recordings, and uses like cell phone ringtones. They say that the rates (which were placed in 1981) don't apply the same way to new technologies." From the article: "According to The Hollywood Reporter, the RIAA maintains that in the modern period when piracy began devastating the record industry profits to publishers from sales of ringtones and other 'innovative services' grew dramatically. Record industry executives believe this to be cause to advocate reducing the royalties paid to the artists who wrote the original music."

3 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. RIAA does *not* represent artists by JoostSchuttelaar · · Score: 5, Informative

    when the RIAA claims to do anything in the future for the sake of artists. The Recording Industry Association of America represents the recording industry, like record labels and distributors, not artists.
  2. Oblig. article links by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are not working for the artists as we all know, but this is a compelling argument detached from the copyright infringement case.

    Just to add to this, here are articles by different artists about being ripped off:

    Steve Albini
    Courtney Love
    Steve Vai

    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  3. Mechanical Royalties != Artist Royalties by VoxCombo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article headline is wrong. Artist royalties are paid by record labels to recording artists for use of their recordings.

    The article is referring to MECHANICAL ROYALTIES which are paid to SONGWRITERS for use of their songs. While the songwriter and artist are often the same, this is not always the case

    EXAMPLE: Joe Schmoe writes a song that is recorded by Britney Spears for her new album. Britney Spears gets paid artist royalties by the record label. Joe Schmoe get paid mechanical royalties by the label.

    The article is talking about reducing Joe Schmoe's royalties