Author: Al Roundtree, J.D Candidate, Class of 2013, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
“What a prosperous looking bunch of lawyers,” was keynote speaker Scott Borchetta’s opening remark to the assembled group of entertainment lawyers, music industry professionals, and law students at last month’s Breakfast with ELI.
Borchetta is the President and CEO of Big Machine Label Group. Big Machine represents recording artists such as Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, and Taylor Swift. Borchetta has been labeled the “Country Music Anti-Christ” by some country music purists due to his promotion of Taylor Swift, “the biggest perversion of the term ‘country’ the genre has ever seen.” More recently, in June 2012, Borchetta forged an unprecedented deal with media giant Clear Channel that entitles Big Machine artists to performance rights for terrestrial radio play, a deal that will likely become the industry model as radio continues to evolve into a digital format. This recording artist-friendly agreement answers, in part, the larger question of how recording artists make money in the digital age.
Pursuant to U.S. copyright law, a song played over terrestrial radio is a public performance of a musical composition. To publicly perform a musical composition, the terrestrial radio station must obtain a license from the composition copyright holder. Online or digital, “interactive” radio is a different story – recording artists have the right to receive licensing fees for songs streamed through websites such as Spotify. Thus, under current copyright law, only composers, through performing rights organizations such as BMI and ASCAP, receive royalties for terrestrial radio play; the recording artists’ only compensation is publicity.
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The views expressed here are exclusively of the author and do not represent agreement or endorsement by the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, or Yeshiva University.
