Publishing Catch-Up: What’s Going on at BMI, Publishing’s $250m Payday, AI Copyright Developments & More

All things music publishing in August 2023, from deals, acquisitions, signings, lawsuits and much more.

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Deals & Acquisitions

Sony Music Publishing strikes deal with India-based record label Big Bang Music (MBW)

The record label based in India, Big Bang Music, has signed a publishing deal with Sony Music Publishing to administer and promote songs globally.

Round Hill Music’s latest deals expand its country portfolio (Music Ally)

The company says country music is now 11% of its overall portfolio, and pointed to various recent growth metrics for the genre both in the US and abroad as evidence of its value.

Tape Room Music to sell over 350 songs (MBW)

Tap Room Music is set to sell over 350 exploited songs from its catalog to Red Light Ventures and Firebird Music as part of a new strategic partnership.

Concord buys portion of song catalog from Tom Higgenson (MBW)

Songwriter and frontman of the Plain White T’s has sold a portion of his music publishing catalog to Concord, including global pop hit ‘Hey There Delilah”.

Cher sells 'range of music assets' to Iconic Artists Group (MBW)

Cher has entered into an agreement with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group that will see the company acquire, develop and expand her storied musical legacy.

Primary Wave acquires catalog from Dennis DeYoung (Digital Music News)

Primary Wave Music has acquired the publishing and recording rights of Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung, including hits like ‘Mr. Roboto,’ ‘Babe,’ and ‘Come Sail Away.’

PROs and Royalties

Songwriters are worried about BMI's private equity sale – and if it will hurt their royalties. What happens now? (MBW)

The on-again, off-again sale of US-headquartered BMI appears to be on again, and this time around, songwriters are asking pointed questions about what BMI’s sale could mean for their royalties.

Songwriters and publishers have a $250m payday coming (Billboard)

Publishers should get ready to welcome a royalty windfall now that the Copyright Royalty Board has printed its Phonorecord III final determination in the Federal Register.

Audoo music-monitoring deal with PRS for Music and PPL (Music Ally)

They will be installing its ‘Audoo Audio Meters’ in cafes, pubs, restaurants, retailers, and other businesses to track the music being played in order to calculate public performance royalties.

Signings

Jack Antonoff signs deal with UMPM (MBW)

Musician, songwriter and producer Jack Antonoff has signed a global pubco admin deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.

BMG strikes publishing deal with Chemical Brothers (Music Week)

The switch of the catalogue (previously with UMPG) builds on BMG’s work with the Chemical Brothers since it signed a futures deal with them in 2015.

Karl Michael sings global publishing deal with Peermusic (Music Row)

British recording artist and songwriter Karl Michael has signed an exclusive global co-publishing deal with Peermusic Nashville.

Grupo Firme sings global deal with UMPG (Billboard)

Mexican music band Grupo Firme has signed an exclusive global publishing agreement with Universal Publishing Group.

WCM signs Maria Beccerra (Digital Music News)

One of Latin music’s leading voices, Maria Beccerra, has signed an exclusive admin deal with Warner Chappell Music, following her recent signing with Warner Music Latina.

Launches

Simon Cowell and UMPG launch Syco Publishing (Music Week)

The new publishing company will sign and develop songwriters and catalogs that will in turn be administered and supported by UMPG.

SM Entertainment to launch music publishing subsidiary (MBW)

SM Entertainment has unveiled its plan to establish a new music publishing arm called Kreation Music Rights with the aim to consolidate SM’s music publishing activities.

Legal

X dismisses music publishers' lawsuit (Music Ally)

The company formerly known as Twitter has filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the publishers lawsuit in its entirety. The core of its argument is the age-old platform-not-publisher defence.

Dua Lipa faces new lawsui over "Levitating" (MBW)

This time from a Californian music producer, engineer and entrepreneur says Lipa used his work in the song’s hit remixes without his permission.

Sony and Universal among companies suing The Internet Archive (MBW)

UMG Recordings, Universal’s Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Arista Music and Concord Music are suing The Internet Archives over their latest project ‘Great 78’.

AI-Generated Works Aren’t Protected By Copyrights, Federal Judge Rules (Billboard)

US District Judge Beryl Howell rules that American copyright law does not cover works created entirely by artificial intelligence.

People

Peermusic Appoints Elizabeth Rodda as President, Latin America and Global Society Relations (Billboard)

In the newly created position, Rodda will oversee the publishing company's Latin initiatives across South America, Mexico and Central America.

Kobalt promotes Alaine Fulton to VP (Music Week)

Kobalt has promoted Alaine Fulton to Vice President, Creative and Clearance Sync. She will oversee the London-based sync team including strategy across sync functions in creative, clearance and licensing administration.

Interesting Reads

Rimas Publishing's Emilio Morales on the next frontier for Latin music (Synchblog)

Emilio Morales Managing Director of Rimas Publishing, a Puerto-Rico based music powerhouse discusses the future of Latin music, publishing challenges on a local and global scale, battling AI Bad Bunnies and more.

Our principles for partnering with the music industry on AI technology (YouTube)

YouTube says that, within and beyond its new AI ‘Incubator’ project, it is publicly committing to three principles/pledges that will guide its development of music-based generative AI tools in the future.

Songwriters Are Using AI to Sell an Artist’s Sound Back to Them (Billboard)

Generative AI can now mimic the vocals of specific artists, and some songwriters are using it to better tailor their song pitches.