Thursday, March 28, 2024

Music: Sound Exchange Digital Royalties Up 31% in 2014 from Sirius, Pandora, Etc.

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SoundExchange, the organization that collects digital royalties, says their total was up 31% in 2014 from 2013. We’re not surprised. SE collected $773 million, up from $590 million, for registered recording artists. Most of it is from Sirius and Pandora. And there would be more of it if both of those digital services paid royalties to artists on pre-1972 recordings.

Thanks to lawsuits filed by the Turtles (their hits include “Happy Together” and “Elenore”), Sirius has been on the losing end of this saga. The Turtles’ Howard Kaylan has led the fight to get royalties for pre-1972 artists and recordings which constitute the bulk of Sirius’s playlists.

If you have Sirius, you know that the first few stations are devoted to the 50s, 60s, and early 70s. There are many other stations playing oldies, including my beloved Soul Town (49). Plenty of country music, show tunes, Sinatra–all of it is being played, essentially, for free with no money going to the people whose voices we hear on the radio.

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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