Music Business

Music Publishing News Roundup: Pandora May Pay Lower Rates To Rights Holders, Grooveshark Folds, Copyright Review Moves Forward To Congress

130611181158-pandora-terrestrial-620xaPandora might lower rights holders payouts, Grooveshark throws in the towel after six years of legal battles, and the Copyright review moves to Congress.

                                                                                                 

Pandora may pay lower rates to rights holders due to their ownership of a terrestrial radio station in South Dakota. The streaming giant acquired KXMZ in June of 2013, but have not been able terrestrial radio rates due to the FCC’s foreign ownership rule, requiring Pandora to be 75% owned by US citizens. FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, however has recently endorsed the idea of waiving this rule, claiming that its an outdated tool for evaluating ownership.

 Grooveshark, the free music service, is finally giving up after a six-year legal battle.  Through a settlement with Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group, the company has made the decision to shut down their services and is instead redirecting users to subscribe to streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer, and Google Play.

Copyright review, in House Judiciary, concludes with the final hearing as the ball passes to Congress.  This hearing was mainly a conclusion to a two-year review of copyright allowing opinions to be put in the public record.  The legislative framework that surrounded this was the Fair Play, Fair Pay Act.  Most of the hearing was focused on the Copyright Office’s pursuit for more independence

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3 Comments

  1. You can’t even understand what’s being said due to typos in this article

  2. My whole class including me love to listen to groove-shark. I went to go on it today in class and I found their shutdown initiation. I got so angry and upset. I listened to it during class when we were allowed, when I was at home cleaning or just relaxing. I liked it because I could pick my music and put it in a queue without watching a video or something. It was my own playlist. I mean it’s not like we were able to download the music, or listen to it without wifi. It was just a good,quick music listening website. I’m so upset with this whole situation. What’s the problem if the artists already get so much recognition? So they messed up? Who cares! Let them re-do it and get some copyright information or whatever they need! I hope they make another website for us. Music is everything to us. This was a way for us to listen to music without paying. This is just so frustrating to me. Something so good and fun taken away from us,because of greedy people that want to control us.

  3. I wish grooveshark had given people notice. I had so many playlists with songs and artists I cant even begin to recall. I mean I would’ve paid an affordable amount to have access to my playlist for at least 2 weeks to 30 days. While it’s nice that “Shark” backed up a plethora of songs, I don’t even know where to begin. This sucks. I loved grooveshark and I constantly had music streaming because of the ease of use and access. Too bad they couldn’t have given us a heads up. It’s like when clear channel bought up all the jazz stations out here with no notice other than subtle music selections changing sporadically over a week.

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