Archive:

Posts by Marco Foley

Independent music creator groups alert US congress to “black box” royalty issue

18 Jul 2023

Fair Trade Music International has joined with MusicAnswers and eight other international music creator groups to alert the US Congress to the hundreds of millions of dollars in the The Mechanical Licensing Collective’s “Black Box”. Most of this was earned…

FTMI endorses comments urging CRB to to reconsider royalty rates for music streaming

07 Dec 2022

Fair Trade Music International has endorsed a submission by the Songwriters Guild of America, Inc., the Society of Composers & Lyricists, Music Creators North America and the individual music creators Rick Carnes and Ashley Irwin to the Copyright Royalty Board…

Fair Trade Music releases a songwriters’ guide to the MLC unmatched royalties issue

28 Oct 2022

Fair Trade Music International has released an educational video to help music creators understand and address the MLC unmatched royalty issue. In this two-minute animation, we explain how these unclaimed royalties came about and describe what each creator can do…

New music shows decreasing popularity in the United States

20 Jul 2022

A new midyear report from the US market monitor Luminate has shown the country’s total album consumption of what they term “current” recorded music fell by 1.4% in the first half of 2022. That’s compared with the same period the…

Independent songwriter groups meet with BMG music publishing

06 Jun 2022

Representatives of the independent American and global music creator communities led by the Songwriters Guild of America, the Society of Composers & Lyricists, and Music Creators North America met with BMG President Thomas Scherer and his team in Los Angeles…

Mechanical royalties: Footnote to a historic achievement

11 May 2022

Our international partner, the International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) has released a summary of the recent achievements regarding the US Copyright Royalty Board and mechanical royalties on physical and downloads. The text is reproduced below: In this, the…

Victory for music creators over frozen mechanical royalties

30 Mar 2022

Our colleagues in the U.S. reported yesterday that the country’s Copyright Royalty Board has rejected the proposal to freeze mechanical and download royalty rates made by corporate giants in the record and music publishing industry. These groups had argued that…

Streaming “needs a complete reset”. UK government inquiry concurs with FTMI study on revenue parity

18 Jul 2021

After ten months of analysis, discussions and expert testimony, the UK government has released the results of its inquiry into the Economics of Music Streaming and concluded that the system “needs a complete reset”. The 122-page report lists the reasons…

FTMI signs “Declaration to End Anti-Black Racism in the Canadian Music Industry”

02 Jun 2021

Toronto, Canada – 2 Jun 2021: Fair Trade Music International (FTMI) has become the latest organization to sign the “Declaration to End Anti-Black Racism in the Canadian Music Industry” on the one-year anniversary of #BlackOutTuesday. This virtual signing event was…

Eddie Schwartz honoured with SOCAN Cultural Impact Award

28 May 2021

We are delighted to announce that long-standing board member and ex-chair of Fair Trade Music International, Eddie Schwartz, has been awarded the 2021 SOCAN Cultural Impact Award for his international influence as a songwriter. His impact as a songwriter on…