"ALL ABOUT THAT BASS” CO-WRITER POCKETED UNDER $6K FOR 178M STREAMS

Kevin Kadish, who co-wrote Meghan Trainor’s smash "All About That Bass," said he was paid a paltry $5,679 in streaming revenue for his piece of the song, The Tennessean reports. The Sony/ATV writer delivered this stunner as he addressed key members of Congress during a roundtable discussion about music copyright Tuesday at Nashville’s Belmont University. The event was initiated by the House Judiciary Committee, which is taking a listening tour after nearly two years, 20 hearings and more than 100 witness testimonies on Capitol Hill.

"I've never heard a songwriter complain about radio royalties as much as streaming royalties," Kadish said. "That was the real issue for us, like 1 million streams equals $90. For a song like 'All About That Bass,' that I wrote, which had 178 million streams. I mean $5,679? That's my share. That's as big a song as a songwriter can have in their career and #1 in 78 countries. But you're making $5,600. How do you feed your family?"

Among the legislators on hand for the discussion was Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), the lead sponsor of the Songwriter Equity Act, legislation designed to improve royalty payouts to publishers and songwriters. Collins told The Tennessean afterward that he believes the listening session served to highlight the points of agreement between the splintered factions of the music industry.

"The thing I felt the best about was there is common ground on a number of issues," Collins said. "And the [agreement was that] there is inequity at this point—[as to] how you solve that inequity, there may be some disagreement. But we're moving to some ideas that would remove the governmental barriers. Almost everyone said, except for the ones who want status quo, that the government part of it is something that could be removed, and there's a better way to fix that."

The he Songwriter Equity Act seeks to create a willing-buyer, willing-seller arrangement for songwriters and publishers. Copyright owners would be able to offer the fair market value of their songs, including sync licensing, as evidence when arguing the digital royalty rates at the federal Copyright Royalty Board.