The war of words between songwriter reps and Spotify continues in the wake of the streaming giant's participation in an appeal of the CRB's proposed royalty rate hike (see linked story below). On 3/12, National Music Publishers' Associationchief David Israelite issued the following point-by-point response to a Spotify blog post defending its decision. Take it away, David.
Spotify released a blog post attempting to spin why it is fighting against songwriters and trying to reverse the CRB decision which granted songwriters only their second meaningful rate increase in history. Let’s fact check their blog:
SPOTIFY SPIN: Is Spotify suing songwriters? No, Spotify is not suing songwriters. Spotify, Amazon, Google, and Pandora have each individually appealed the CRB outcome. The National Music Publishers’ Association, or NMPA, also filed an appeal. An appeal is the only avenue for anyone to clarify elements of the CRB ruling.
TRUTH: Spotify is appealing the decision of the CRB to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in order to reduce or eliminate the royalty rate increases granted to songwriters by the CRB. It’s that simple. Everything else—including Spotify’s attempt to describe its filing as “clarifying elements” of a ruling—is misleading spin. Simple question for Spotify: Do you want to reduce or eliminate the rate increase? If the answer is anything but an unqualified “no”, then all songwriters should see right through Spotify’s attempt to divert and distract. Further, NMPA made clear it would not appeal unless the digital services appealed first. If the digital companies withdraw their appeal, so will NMPA.
