The National Music Publishers' Association announced its fifth consecutive year of increased revenues, while noting the industry's high-stakes legal cases still ahead.
The Copyright Royalty Board had improved songwriter rates to increase the headline rate incrementally 10.5% to 15.1% over five years from 2018 to 2022. YouTube and Pandora also appealed that ruling and the four services are collectively fighting back to reduce the rate. The music publishing sector is asking the DOJ to amend the consent decrees to allow individual publishing companies to selectively withdraw their digital rights from blanket licenses so that they can negotiate direct deals with the digital services, but still enjoy the performance rights organizations' blanket license for other music users.
That compares with the prior year when performance was $1.8 billion, or 54.6%; synch was $696 million, or 21%; mechanical was $586 million, or 17.8%; and other was $217.5 million, or 6.6%.