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It's 2015! Time to get rid of the '70s.

:rolleyes: As the Unregistered Guest pointed out, the only two being sued for not for their pre-1972 recordings are Pandora and Sirius XM. If any others were being sued, that would be in the news too.

Precisely. The pros responses are typical exaggerations. A lot of internet radio services simply pay Sound Exchange for them like they would any other song recorded post-1972. There hasn't been any sign that any of those services are facing lawsuits. Sirius XM and Pandora are just looking for a way to cut their royalty costs.
 

Lite 99 response: I'm not sure how that copyright issue affects Lite 99 and other online-only stations. At Lite 99, we don't license our music directly from the labels. We use a service that licenses us on our behalf. I haven't heard anything from our music licensor in regards to the airing of pre-1972 recordings. However, I am aware of the Turtles/Sirius XM lawsuit. We'll keep playing pre-1972 music until we hear otherwise.

*Bolded - The earlier station I got an email from last night and these 4 all use that same licensing service.
 
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Everyone simply just drop The Turtles from your playlist. They weren't all that great of a band anyway.
 
It's not only pop hits that are at stake here, right? Streaming services that play pre-1972 recordings of country, jazz, classical, even ethnic music would also have to pay up, radically alter their playlists, or fold. Sirius XM would have to eliminate three channels immediately (40s, 50s and 60s), and radically change the focus of several others (Real Jazz, Bluesville, Roadhouse, Deep Tracks ...). Subscribers would be lost, for sure. Could we see a countersuit by SXM against the ex-Turtles for damage done to its business? What a wonderful time to be alive and a lawyer specializing in copyright and communications law in America!
 

Soft Rock Radio Love response: Both SoftRockRadio sand SoftRockRadio Love pay monthly royalties for the use and broadcast of copyrighted music. BMI, ASCAP and SESAC all get their share as does SoundExchange. I don't yet know how the SiriusXM ruling, when it officially comes down, will impact internet broadcasting, but we are watching closely. The bigger issue facing us is when an agreement on royalty rates expires in 2016. All is good now, but if an agreement with SoundExchange isn't reached by the end of this year, many internet stations could go away.

From my understanding that agreement is about hobbyists than something like Apple's iTunes Radio: http://forum.streamlicensing.com/index.php?topic=283.0
 
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And Christmas music would be affected too.

So no more Sinatra, Bennett, Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr., Ronettes....etc..etc..

Yeah that would be bad. We'd have nothing left but that Mariah Carey song! No thanks.
 
K Lite response: Good question. I don't believe that it will affect my stations. I pay a company a monthly fee that handles all royalties for ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. The price goes up and down every month depending on how many people are listening and for how long. They keep a good track on that issue, so my stations should be legal.

ASCAP BMI and SESAC are the three major organizations representing authors and composers. They do not represent artists and labels. They collect fees from both digital and analog transmission of the songs they cover.

SoundExchange covers the artists and labels for everything except over the air radio (although it does cover OTA station streams) from 1972 to the present.
 
Many news reports I've heard about it said it could have even broader implications and potential impact than whether digital streaming services have to pay for pre-1972 recordings. It could impact many other businesses at which sound recordings are publicly performed, including not only terrestrial radio, broadcast TV and cable, but also any other physical place such as every bar restaurant and nightclub in the United States as well as any other physical venue that plays music publicly (amusement parks, bowling alleys and stadiums for instance).

The Turtles have opened up a can of worms that's going to get even more wildly complicated.

Terrestrial radio does not pay artist or label royalties, whether it is for pre- or post-1972 music.
 


ASCAP BMI and SESAC are the three major organizations representing authors and composers. They do not represent artists and labels. They collect fees from both digital and analog transmission of the songs they cover.

SoundExchange covers the artists and labels for everything except over the air radio (although it does cover OTA station streams) from 1972 to the present.

It's like I said in this post, all these stations use the same licensing service:

Lite 99 response: I'm not sure how that copyright issue affects Lite 99 and other online-only stations. At Lite 99, we don't license our music directly from the labels. We use a service that licenses us on our behalf. I haven't heard anything from our music licensor in regards to the airing of pre-1972 recordings. However, I am aware of the Turtles/Sirius XM lawsuit. We'll keep playing pre-1972 music until we hear otherwise.

*Bolded - The earlier station I got an email from last night and these 4 all use that same licensing service.

As this response pointed out, that licensing service they all use pays SoundExchange as well:

Soft Rock Radio Love response: Both SoftRockRadio sand SoftRockRadio Love pay monthly royalties for the use and broadcast of copyrighted music. BMI, ASCAP and SESAC all get their share as does SoundExchange. I don't yet know how the SiriusXM ruling, when it officially comes down, will impact internet broadcasting, but we are watching closely. The bigger issue facing us is when an agreement on royalty rates expires in 2016. All is good now, but if an agreement with SoundExchange isn't reached by the end of this year, many internet stations could go away.

From my understanding that agreement is about hobbyists than something like Apple's iTunes Radio: http://forum.streamlicensing.com/index.php?topic=283.0
 
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It's like I said in this post, all these stations use the same licensing service:



As this response pointed out, that licensing service they all use pays SoundExchange as well:

But, at present, the licensing services you refer to are not paying artist and lablel royalties for pre-72 music as there is no entity collecting on behalf of those songs and performances
 
Like they've said, it's nothing to worry about until they hear otherwise.
 


But, at present, the licensing services you refer to are not paying artist and lablel royalties for pre-72 music as there is no entity collecting on behalf of those songs and performances

Not necessarily true.

As this says: http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2014/0529.asp

bolding piece from article:

The Copyright Office (CO) has noted that "some webcasters are making royalty payments for the use of pre-1972 sound recordings as part of the statutory royalties they pay to SoundExchange in connection with the digital performance of sound recordings pursuant to sections 112 and 114".
 
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I just checked the playlist for WTCB in South Carolina over on Tunegenie and they just played Everybody Plays The Fool by Aaron Neville, which is very weird considering that the station has CHR-like imaging and borders on hot AC. This song came out in '72.

This shows how Cumulus is now ruining their AC product, the same way Clear Channel(now IHeartMedia) is doing now. This will sure alienate younger listeners, especially if they put in sleepy 70's music. Such songs like the one I mentioned above is only played on classic hits, urban AC or gold-based AC stations, not today's mainstream AC.

Other Cumulus-owned AC stations that have either limited the amount of 70's music they play per hour or eliminated them altogether could follow the footsteps of WTCB as part of the company's aggressive playlist policy since they bought Citadel. Our local Cumulus-owned AC station Magic 93, WMGS in NEPA played is believed to played only one 70's tune per hour, while the others lean hot AC. That's because there's an classic hits station that has spread on several FM translators throughout our area.
 
Everybody Plays The Fool by Aaron Neville, This song came out in '72.

Well the original by the Main Ingredient came out in 1972. But Aaron's remake was 20 years later. This was at a time when Aaron was having a huge resurgence in his career, thanks in part to his Adult Contemporary song with Linda Ronstadt "Don't Know Much."
 
Yes, 1991 was Aaron Neville, as you say, while The Main Ingredient was 1972.
 
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