Live Nation, AEG, NACPA file appeal to reverse BMI concert rate victory

Live Nation, AEG, and the North American Concert Promoters Association (NACPA) have filed an appeal to reverse BMI’s March court victory, which set new rates that promoters must pay songwriters for music performed at live shows.

The new rate would be 138% higher than the historical rate and be calculated on an expanded revenue base that includes tickets sold directly onto the secondary market, the portion of ticket service fees received by the promoters, and revenues from box suites and VIP packages.

Tuesday’s filing would seem to be a course correction for Live Nation, who originally sought to downplay the court victory.

“We advocated on behalf of artists to keep their costs down and managed to hold the increase to less than 1/3 of BMI’s proposed increase,” Live Nation said in a statement at the time. “This will cost the performers we work with approximately $15 million a year spread out over thousands of artists, and cost increases for Live Nation directly are not material.”

Unsurprisingly, BMI intends to fight back.

“Given Live Nation, AEG, and NACPA’s bizarre position throughout the trial that concertgoers attend concerts for the experience of the staging, videos, and light shows, as opposed to the actual songs and music being performed, their appeal was not a surprise to BMI,” Mike O’Neill, President & CEO of BMI said in a statement Wednesday. “For decades, the live concert industry has fought to keep rates suppressed.  And even now, when they are making more money than ever, in more ways than ever, they are determined to deny songwriters and composers the fair value of their work, despite the fact that without their contributions, a concert wouldn’t even be possible.  BMI will continue to fight on behalf of our affiliates, the creators of the music that is the very backbone of the live concert industry, to prevent that outcome.”

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.