Music Publishing News 11.4.16: Sony Settles w/ Songwriters • Germany OK’s YouTube • ICE Signs Soundcloud

Sony Music Entertainment has filed a joint agreement along with US publishers and songwriter organizations with the Copyright Royalty Board concerning proposed new statutory mechanical royalty rates. SME has agreed to will withdraw its input from the section of the proceedings regarding on-demand streams, quelling the bad blood between the major and publishers who had accused it of following a label-led agenda to reduce songwriters’ potential share of streaming payouts. The joint statement from SME, the NMPA, and the NSAI notes, “Sony Music and the music publishing community value their relationship.”• German collection society GEMA has finally reached a licensing agreement with YouTube, finally making previously unlicensed music videos playable in the region. One of the biggest stand-offs in digital music history began in April 2009 after YouTube’s 17-month deal with GEMA came to a close and GEMA attempted to negotiate a higher per-stream fee for its licensed videos. YouTube says the agreement “reflects a long-held commitment that composers, songwriters, and publishers should be paid fairly, while ensuring fans can enjoy their favorite songs and discover new music on YouTube.”• One-stop pan-European online rights hub ICE has signed a multi-territory license with SoundCloud. This agreement will enable right holders across Europe to receive royalties from SoundCloud’s services, including the recently launched subscription offering, SoundCloud Go. This deal follows a licensing agreement between SoundCloud and UK collecting society PRS for Music last year that ended a lawsuit against the service over unpaid royalties.