Musical culture and economics rest on both speech freedoms and copyright protections
New York, November 19, 2022: With the suppression of artistic freedoms on the rise throughout the world, it remains clear that many governments continue to view the longstanding practice of lashing out against music creators to be an especially effective…
Read More Fair Trade Music releases a songwriters’ guide to the MLC unmatched royalties issue
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…
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MCNA thanks US Copyright Royalty Board for its positive response to calls for transparency
Our international partners, Music Creators North America announced their elation today at the US Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) positive response to the filings by songwriter George Johnson and MCNA, regarding the dire need for transparency in the mechanical rate setting…
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Maria Schneider achieves important, incremental victory against YouTube
One of Fair Trade Music’s international partners is Music Creators North America (MCNA), the umbrella group and international representative for the independent songwriter and composer communities of the United States and Canada. MCNA recently issued a press release declaring its…
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New music shows decreasing popularity in the United States
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…
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Independent songwriter groups meet with BMG music publishing
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…
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Mechanical royalties: Footnote to a historic achievement
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…
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Independent music creator groups will again speak out on new CRB Phonorecords IV royalty proposal
SGA, SCL & MCNA to review the new mechanical royalty rate settlement of the major labels and publishers, seeking to ensure that the music creator proposals on which they are based have been fully incorporated May 4, 2022: New York…
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Victory for music creators over frozen mechanical royalties
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…
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