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23 December 2020PatentsRory O'Neill

PROs reveal music ownership data amid DoJ scrutiny

Two leading music publishers have  unveiled a new, free data platform that displays ownership information for the “vast majority” of licensed music in the US.

The news comes amid scrutiny over a purported lack of transparency in the music licensing industry, and concerns over the power of music publishers.

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), together with Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI) are two of the biggest performing rights organisations (PROs) in the US.

PROs are responsible for collecting and distributing licensing fees for music that has been performed in public.  Songview, a new platform published by ASCAP and BMI, displays ownership data for more than 20 million musical works in the two PROs’ combined portfolios.

The DoJ is currently  reviewing agreements with ASCAP and BMI which regulate performing rights licences in the music industry. A call for public comments on the agreements, known as consent decrees, ended last August, and the review could result in greater checks on how PROs operate.

DoJ officials have previously noted “competitive concerns arising from the market power each organisation acquired through the aggregation of public performance rights”.

In a  statement issued yesterday, the DoJ welcomed the initiative and called for the PROs to do more to improve transparency in the industry.

“While more work needs to be done to improve the transparency of copyright ownership in musical works, the creation of this free platform is a positive step towards doing so and, importantly, may help to promote competition in the music licensing industry to the benefit of music licensees, artists, and American consumers,” said head of the DoJ’s antitrust division, assistant attorney general Makan Delrahim.

In a joint statement, both PROs said they were committed to greater transparency in music licensing.

“When two companies that are fierce competitors come together on a project this ambitious to address a need identified by the marketplace, it says a lot about how important greater data transparency is to both of our organisations,” said BMI CEO Mike O’Neill.

“This project is all about providing greater transparency for everyone who relies on this copyright data to guide important business decisions,” added ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews.

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