National Music Publishers’ Association
During the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) annual meeting on Wednesday (June 12), the trade organization said it had calculated total U.S. publishing revenue at $6.2 billion in 2023, up 10.74% from the previous year.
The event, held at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, is thought of as a state of the union for the U.S. music publishing business. During the presentation, it’s also common for NMPA president/CEO David Israelite to announce major actions it’s taking against tech companies on behalf of publishers. This year, he targeted Spotify, sending an official complaint to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well as letters to the attorneys general of nine states and a list of consumer groups — urging them to stop Spotify’s efforts to bundle music and audiobooks into its premium tiers. It’s the first time the NMPA has involved the FTC in its fight with a tech company.
For publishers and songwriters, Spotify’s decision to include audiobooks in its premium tiers and categorize those tiers as “bundles” — a type of plan that qualifies for a discounted rate on U.S. mechanical royalties given that multiple products are offered under one price tag — means a lower royalty rate for music given that both music and audiobooks must now be paid out from the same royalty pool. In May, the NMPA launched its war with Spotify by sending a cease and desist letter to the streamer for allegedly hosting lyrics, music videos and podcast content that contain their members’ copyrighted musical works without proper licenses.
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In Wednesday’s FTC complaint, the NMPA says Spotify “has deceived consumers by converting millions of its subscribers without their consent from music-only subscriptions into ‘bundled’ audiobook-and-music subscriptions, publicly announcing increased prices for those subscriptions, failing to offer an option for subscribers to revert to a music-only subscription, and thwarting attempts to cancel through dark patterns and confusing website interfaces.” (For more on this, check out Billboard‘s full coverage of the FTC complaint here.)
Aside from Israelite’s big announcement, the event also honored top songwriters for their contributions to the music business — including an opening tribute to songwriter and outgoing NMPA board member Ross Golan. The NMPA also issued awards to Lana Del Rey, this year’s Songwriter Icon recipient, and Savan Kotecha, winner of the Non-Performing Songwriter Icon award. Elsewhere, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” was honored with NMPA’s Iconic Song award, featuring a performance of the song by Ingrid Michaelson.
The event additionally featured fireside chats with Robert Kyncl, CEO of Warner Music Group, and Shira Perlmutter, register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office.
NMPA’s annual meeting comes amidst a busy year in the music publishing business. At the start of 2024, the MLC, which collects and distributes U.S. mechanicals, began its first-ever redesignation process — a routine five-year review of its operations to determine if any changes need to be made to the organization.
The same month, UMG pulled its music catalog from TikTok, including its publishing interests, alleging that the short-form app did not pay the “fair value” of music while also raising concerns regarding AI and artist safety. The NMPA showed its support for UMG regarding the move and even joined the music giant by letting the NMPA’s model license with TikTok, used by a number of indie publishers, lapse at the end of April. (UMG and TikTok eventually made a deal.)
The National Music Publishers’ Association’s (NMPA) war with Spotify continued at its annual meeting held Wednesday (June 12) at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.
In an address to the publishing executives in attendance, NMPA CEO/president David Israelite announced that the organization has filed an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and sent letters to the attorneys general for nine states as well as consumer trade groups to try to stop Spotify from reclassifying its premium tiers as “bundles” — a classification that allows the streamer to pay a lower mechanical royalty rate in the United States.
The NMPA alleges that Spotify has violated the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (“ROSCA”), section 5 of the FTC Act and various consumer protection laws. Spotify has not returned Billboard’s request for comment.
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As Billboard previously reported, publishers anticipate a $150 million loss in U.S. mechanicals in the first year of the bundling reclassification compared to what publishers would have been paid had it never happened. The decreased payments began in March with no prior warning, according to the NMPA and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (the MLC). Spotify, however, believes it is playing by the book in making the change to how it pays out U.S. mechanical royalties given that it has “bundled” audiobooks in with the other offerings included in the streamer’s premium plans.
“Spotify has declared war on songwriters,” said Israelite at Wednesday’s meeting. “Our response shall be all-encompassing.” Israelite noted that the NMPA (as well as the MLC) has taken multiple actions to stop Spotify’s bundling reclassification already. The organization’s all-out retaliation began with statements made against the company in March, followed in May by a cease and desist letter in which the NMPA threatened to file a lawsuit against Spotify for allegedly using music and lyrics in some of its podcasts and videos without permission. (Spotify called the move a “press stunt” by the NMPA).
“Our letter was not just a warning shot, and the NMPA has never lost a lawsuit. So you’ll want to stay tuned,” Israelite added on Wednesday.
Only days after the NMPA threatened legal action, the MLC filed a lawsuit against Spotify for “improperly” reclassifying its premium tiers as bundles.
The following week, the NMPA sent a letter to the Judiciary Committees in both the U.S. House and Senate asking for an overhaul of the statutory license in section 115 of the Copyright Act, which binds publishers to strict regulations and rules over what they can charge streaming services for U.S. mechanicals.
In the NMPA’s letter to the FTC, obtained by Billboard, general counsel Danielle Aguirre wrote: “The [NMPA] writes to urge the FTC to address unlawful conduct by Spotify that is harming millions of consumers and the music marketplace… Spotify has deceived consumers by converting millions of its subscribers without their consent from music-only subscriptions into ‘bundled’ audiobook-and-music subscriptions, publicly announcing increased prices for those subscriptions, failing to offer an option for subscribers to revert to a music-only subscription, and thwarting attempts to cancel through dark patterns and confusing website interfaces. This bait-and-switch subscription scheme is “saddling shoppers with recurring payments for products and services they did not intend to purchase or did not want to continue to purchase.”
Aguirre continued, “Indeed, it has all the red flags of problematic negative-option practices that the FTC has consistently warned companies about: (1) Spotify has failed to give consumers all material information about its subscription plans up front; (2) Spotify has billed consumers without their informed consent; and (3) Spotify has made it hard for consumers to cancel.”
Other letters of complaint were also sent to the attorneys general for nine states, including California, New York, Tennessee, Colorado, Georgia, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington, D.C. In the NMPA’s letter to both the New York bureau chief of the consumer frauds and protection bureau as well as the state’s assistant attorney general, obtained by Billboard, Aguirre wrote: “We urge your office to investigate and address Spotify’s conduct as well.”
Letters were also sent to consumer groups including the National Consumers’ League, the Consumer Federation of America, Public Citizen Consumer Action and the National Consumer Wealth Center in hopes of sparking a class action lawsuit.
The NMPA’s recent moves are being supported by representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA), Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) via a letter sent Wednesday to Shira Perlmutter, register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office.
In the letter, the three representatives wrote: “As members of the Judiciary Committee, which originated the Music Modernization Act, we want to see the law faithfully implemented and copyright owners protected from harm arising from bad faith exploitation of the compulsory system. Digital service providers should not be permitted to manipulate statutory rates to slash royalties, deeply undercutting copyright protections for songwriters and publishers. A fair system should prevent any big tech company from setting their own price for someone else’s intellectual property, whether the owner wants to sell or not.”
Each year, the NMPA is known for announcing major breaking news at its annual meeting — typically against tech companies that, in its view, are not properly paying for songs. Last year, Israelite announced a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, which is still in progress. In previous years, the NMPA has gone after Twitch, Peloton, Roblox and more.
“We will see what the Federal Court in the Southern District of NY, the United States Congress, the Copyright Office, the Copyright Royalty Board, the FTC, multiple State Attorneys General and consumer advocacy groups have to say,” Israelite told the crowd on Wednesday. “Most importantly, we will see what the songwriters and music publishers who make the product that allows Spotify to exist have to say.”
Lana Del Rey will receive this year’s NMPA Songwriter Icon award, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) announced today. The award will be presented at the organization’s annual meeting at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City on June 12.
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Del Rey, 38, has received 11 Grammy nominations (but, surprisingly, no wins yet). Her nods include three in songwriting categories – “Norman Fu—ing Rockwell” and “A&W,” both for song of the year, and “Young and Beautiful” (from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby) for best song written for visual media. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for co-writing “Big Eyes” from the Tim Burton of the same name.
“Lana Del Rey defines being iconic,” NMPA president and CEO David Israelite said in a statement. “Her influence is felt across all genres and has inspired the biggest artists in the business. Her songwriting is deeply personal, and she continues to innovate – bringing fans thought provoking lyrics and indelible style.”
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Savan Kotecha will receive the NMPA Non-Performing Songwriter Icon award. Kotecha has received Grammy, Golden Globe and Oscar nods in songwriting categories. He received a Grammy nod for best song written for visual media and a Golden Globe nod for best original song for “Love Me Like You Do” and an Oscar nod for best original song for”Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.
“Savan Kotecha is virtually unmatched in his impact on pop music,” Israelite said in a statement. “He has helped craft the sounds for so many of the biggest hits of the past decade. We are thrilled to honor his continued success.”
The timeless ballad “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” co-written by Luigi Creatore, Hugo Peretti and George David Weiss, will be honored as an NMPA Iconic Song. Elvis Presley’s original hit version of the song, recorded for his 1961 film Blue Hawaii, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. UB40’s reggae-tinged cover version, recorded for the film Sliver, spent seven weeks at No. 1 in 1993.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) will receive the NMPA President’s award for his work to support creators.
Additionally, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl will sit down for a keynote conversation. Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter will discuss the current challenges of protecting intellectual property.
The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) warned some of its members on Tuesday that the organizations’ license with TikTok ends April 30 and it “do[es] not anticipate” to renew, extend or form a new license with the platform, according to a letter obtained by Billboard.
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This means that a lot more music could be removed from TikTok come May, spreading the reach of recent music takedowns far beyond what users have already experienced since Universal Music Group began pulling its recorded music and publishing catalogs off the platform in the last month. The NMPA license is used by a number of independent music publishers, but the organization has previously declined to specify which ones.
“Recently, the press has highlighted concerns around TikTok’s licensing practices, concerns that NMPA has heard directly from many of our members,” says the organization in its letter to members.
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If publishers wish to continue to license their works to TikTok, the NMPA’s letter urges publishers using its license to “engage directly with TikTok to negotiate a license beyond April 30.” For those that wish to let the license lapse at the end of April, the NMPA says its attorneys are available to “discuss enforcement options.”
“It is important that all NMPA members understand that without a license in place, TikTok should not be using your musical works on its platform,” the organization wrote.
The NMPA negotiates its TikTok license an optional offering for its membership, allowing them to bypass the strain and cost of negotiating directly with the short-form video app. Though the major music publishers are part of the NMPA’s membership, they do not use the NMPA model license for TikTok and, instead, negotiate their deals directly.
David Israelite, the NMPA’s CEO and president, previously announced that the NMPA license was up for renewal in April, but this is the first time the organization has acknowledged that it will not be pursuing that renewal. “I’m only going to say two things about TikTok,” Israelite said at an Association of Independent Music Publishers’ event in Los Angels on Feb. 1. “The first is I think music is tremendously important to the business model of TikTok, and, secondly, I am just stating the fact that the NMPA model license, which many of you are using, with TikTok expires in April.”
The NMPA is known for its aggressive approach to licensing negotiations with social media sites, streaming services and gaming platforms. On Tuesday, it was announced that a federal judge will allow the NMPA’s multi-million dollar lawsuit against X to go forward, although it tossed some significant elements of the case. The NMPA has also similarly fought back against Twitch, Roblox, and Pandora in recent years.
Read the full letter to NMPA members below:
If you are receiving this Member Alert you are currently participating in a license with TikTok through NMPA’s 2022 model license opt-in.
NMPA is notifying all participants that these two-year licenses are set to expire on April 30, 2024.
Recently, the press has highlighted concerns around TikTok’s licensing practices, concerns that NMPA has heard directly from many of our members.
At this time, we do not anticipate that there will be an option to renew or extend the current NMPA licenses or participate in a new license with TikTok through NMPA.
NMPA members should make their own business determination whether to engage directly with TikTok to negotiate a license beyond April 30, 2024.
It is important that all NMPA members understand that without a license in place, TikTok should not be using your musical works on its platform.
Starting May 1, 2024, any members who are not licensed with TikTok and would like to discuss enforcement options can contact attorneys at NMPA.
If circumstances change prior to the expiration of the current TikTok licenses, NMPA will promptly notify members.
We are here to answer your questions.
Each year during Grammy week, members of the Association of Independent Music Publishers‘ (AIMP) gather at Lawry’s steakhouse in Beverly Hills to hear a speech from David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA). In it, Israelite discussed the successes of the Music Modernization Act, the new UMG TikTok licensing feud, the viability of artificial intelligence regulation, and the more.
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He started the presentation with slides showcasing the publishing revenue for 2022, divided by categories: performance (48.29% or $2.7 billion), mechanical (20.27% or $1.1 billion), synch (26.07% or $1.4 billion), and other (5.37% or $300 million). Synch, he says, is the fastest growing source of revenue.
Israelite focused much of his time on addressing the Music Modernization Act, which was passed about five years ago. “I don’t want you to forget is just how amazing the Music Modernization Act was and is for this industry,” he said. “I believe that it is the most important legislation in the history of the music business… You’re going to start to take for granted some of the things… but we had to fight and win to get this done.” He pointed to successes of the landmark law like the change in the rate standard to a willing seller, willing buyer model and its creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC).
Earlier this week, the MLC (and the digital licensee coordinator, DLC) began the process of its first-ever re-designation. This is a routine five-year reassessment of the organization and how well it is doing its job of administering the blanket mechanical license created by the MMA. As part of the re-designation process, songwriters, publishers and digital services are allowed to submit comments to the Copyright Office about the MLC’s performance. “Many of you will have a role in offering your opinions to the copyright office about that,” says Israelite. “The process needs to be respected and played out, but [The MLC] will be re-designated, and it is an absolute no brainer decision. There’s a lot about the MLC that I want to remind you about.”
Israelite then highlighted the organization’s “transparency,” the lack of administration fees for publishers and that the projection of 2023 revenue from streaming for recorded music ($6.3 billion) and publishing ($1.7 billion) “the split is the closest it has ever been,” attributing this, in part, to the MLC’s work.
He also addressed Grammy week’s biggest story: the UMG TikTok licensing standoff. “I’m only going to say two things about TikTok: the first is I think music is tremendously important to the business model of TikTok, and, secondly, I am just stating the fact that the NMPA model license, which many of you are using, with TikTok expires in April.” At that time, the NMPA can either re-up its model license with TikTok or walk away. If it were to pull a similar punch to what UMG has done, indie publishers could either negotiate with TikTok directly for their own license, or they could also walk away from the platform.
Later, in addressing artificial intelligence concerns, he pledged his support for the creation of a federal right of publicity, but he admitted “I want to be honest with you, it does not have a good chance.” Even though the music business is vying for its adoption, Israelite says that film and TV industry does not want it. “Within the copyright community we don’t agree… and guess who is bigger than music? Film and TV.”
Still, he believes there is merit in fighting for the proposed bill. “It might help with state legislative efforts and it raises the profile,” he said, but Israelite stated that his priority for AI regulation is to require transparency from AI companies and to keep records of how AI models are trained.
During the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) annual meeting on Wednesday, the trade organization announced its latest board of directors.
The latest executive board includes: Jody Gerson (Chair and CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group), Keith Hauprich (general counsel and executive vp, business and legal affairs, North America, BMG), Laurent Hubert (CEO, Kobalt), Carianne Marshall (co-chair and COO, Warner Chappell Music), Jon Platt (chair and CEO, Sony Music Publishing), Jim Selby (chief publishing executive, Concord).
Other board members include: Marti Cuevas (founder and president, Mayimba Music), Justin Kalifowitz (executive chairman, Downtown Music Publishing), Golnar Khosrowshahi (founder and CEO, Reservoir), Jody Klein (owner and CEO, ABKCO), Kenny MacPherson (CEO, Hipgnosis Songs Group), Chip McLean (svp, head of business affairs and business development, Disney Music Group), Larry Mestel (founder and CEO, Primary Wave), Michael Molinar (general manager, Big Machine Music), Jeff Pachman (general manager, Domino Publishing), Ralph Peer II (executive chair, peermusic), Irwin Robinson (vp, Richmond Organization), Jon Singer (chairman, Spirit Music Group).
The 20-member board comprises an executive board featuring leaders from the six largest companies according to revenue from the previous year, a general board of 12 additional publishing leaders, and two songwriters representing creatives’ point of view. To represent songwriters, the board elected Laura Veltz to replace Liz Rose, who recently reached her term limit of four years. Ross Golan is returning as the other songwriter representative.
Domino’s Pachman is this year’s only new publisher to join the board, replacing Leeds Levy.
All board members receive equal voting power and will meet four times annually to oversee the activity and budget of the NMPA. The board plays a major role in determining the legal actions of the trade organization, which is known to fight aggressively for fair pay and licensing for compositions.
This year, the NMPA is focused on new legal action it is taking against Twitter, which was also announced at Wednesday’s event. According to the complaint, the NMPA — along with over a dozen of music publishers — is suing Twitter over allegations of widespread copyright infringement, seeking as much as $255 million in damages.
In 1994, at the dawn of the internet era, Rolling Stone asked Steve Jobs if he still had faith in technology. “It’s not a faith in technology,” he responded. “It’s faith in people.”
Today, at the dawn of the artificial intelligence era, we put our faith in people too.
It’s hard to think of an issue that has exploded onto the public scene with the furor of the debate over AI, which went from obscure technology journals to national morning shows practically overnight. This week, Congress is convening the first two of what will surely be many hearings on the issue, including one with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and another with musician, voice actor and SAG-AFTRA National Board member Dan Navarro.
As members of the global Human Artistry Campaign, made up of more than 100 organizations that represent a united, worldwide coalition of the creative arts, we welcome this open and active debate. It’s gratifying to see policymakers, industry, and our own creative community asking tough questions up front. It’s a lot easier to chart a course in advance than to play catch up from afterward.
We don’t have long to get this right, either. The internet is already awash in unlicensed and unethical “style” and “soundalike” tools that rip off the writing, voice, likeness and style of professional artists and songwriters without authorization or permission. Powerful new engines like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Jukebox, Google’s MusicLM and Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing have been trained on vast troves of musical compositions, lyrics, and sound recordings — as well as every other type of data and information available on the internet — without even the most basic transparency or disclosure, let alone consent from the creators whose work is being used. Songwriters, recording artists, and musicians today are literally being forced to compete against AI programs trained on copies of their own compositions and recordings.
RIAA Chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier
Othello Banaci
We strongly support AI that can be used to enhance art and stretch the potential of human creativity even further. Technology has always pushed art forward, and AI will be no different.
At the same time, however, human artistry must and will always remain at the core of genuine creation. The basis of creative expression is the sharing of lived experiences — an artist-to-audience/audience-to-artist connection that forms our culture and identity.
Without a rich supply of human-created works, there would be nothing on which to train AI in the first place. And if we don’t lay down a policy foundation now that respects, values and compensates the unique genius of human creators, we will end up in a cultural cul-de-sac, feeding AI-generated works back into the engines that produced them in a costly and ultimately empty race to the artistic bottom.
That policy foundation must start with the core value of consent. Use of copyrighted works to train or develop AI must be subject to free-market licensing and authorization from all rights holders. Creators and copyright owners must retain exclusive control over the ways their work is used. The moral invasion of AI engines that steal the core of a professional performer’s identity — the product of a lifetime’s hard work and dedication — without permission or pay cannot be tolerated.
David Israelite
Courtesy of NMPA
This will require AI developers to ensure copyrighted training inputs are approved and licensed, including those used by pre-trained AIs they employ. It means they need to keep thorough and transparent records of the creative works and likenesses used to train AI systems and how they were exploited. These obligations are nothing new, though — anyone who uses another creator’s work or a professional’s voice, image or likeness must already ensure they have the necessary rights and maintain the records to prove it.
Congress is right to bring in AI developers like Sam Altman to hear the technology community’s vision for the future of AI and explore the safeguards and guardrails the industry is relying on today. The issues around the rapid deployment of novel AI capabilities are numerous and profound: data privacy, deepfakes, bias and misinformation in training sets, job displacement and national security.
Creators will be watching and listening closely for concrete, meaningful commitments to the core principles of permission and fair market licensing that are necessary to sustain songwriters and recording artists and drive innovation.
We have already seen some of what AI can do. Now it falls to us to insist that it be done in ethical and lawful ways. Nothing short of our culture — and, over time, our very humanity — is at stake.
David Israelite is the President & CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association. NMPA is the trade association representing American music publishers and their songwriting partners.
Mitch Glazier is chairman/CEO of the RIAA, the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major recorded-music companies.
The Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) had its first meeting of 2023 on Feb. 2 and invited National Music Publishers’ Association President and CEO, David Israelite, to address the organization. In his wide-ranging presentation, Israelite discussed artificial intelligence, Twitter, “realistic” copyright royalty board reform, and Phonorecords III (the ruling which will set U.S. streaming mechanical rates for the period of 2018-2022), which he said will be resolved “any day now.”
“We are five years and 33 days late of knowing what our rates are and counting,” said Israelite of Phono III, which was intended to be resolved at the start of the period in 2018 but has drug on ever since. In 2018, the NMPA and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) had won an increase in the headline rate that songwriters and publishers are paid, but the following year Google, Spotify, Amazon and Pandora all appealed the ruling, hoping to go back to a previous rate they had paid in the period before. This led to indecision at the Copyright Royalty Board until July 1, 2022, when the judges announced a long-awaited determination in the remand proceeding, favoring to uphold what headline rate publishers and songwriters had asked for in 2018 but also providing other concessions to the streaming services, but the announcement was not the end of the road for Phono III. A true final determination still has yet to be announced.
“This is the definition of a broken process,” Israelite told the crowd of independent publishers. “This is why our top legislative priority for this next Congress is going to be reforming the way that the CRB works.” A number of independent voices in the songwriting and publishing community have voiced differing opinions regarding how to reform the CRB, how rates should be set, and who should get a seat at the negotiating table, as evidenced in their comments to the board during the proceedings of Phono IV. “CRB reform will only happen if all the parties come together and agree on what to do,” Israelite said. “When I talk about CRB reform, I’m going to talk about it in terms of what is possible, not in terms of what is utopia. There’s a lot we would change if we could [but some of] that is not happening.”
“Instead, we’re focused on two things: First, this process should encourage settlements. The goal of this process is to avoid going to court and working thing out like we have. Second part is that if you have to go to trial, if the settlement fails, then that process should work. When we have to wait more than five years to know what our rates have been, it doesn’t work,” he said. He also requested more resources for the Copyright Royalty Board’s judges.
In Congress, Israelite noted that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is the chair of the judiciary committee, does not have a history of dealing with music issues. So, he suggested, “We have to bring [the House] what is close to a finished product with consensus from the industry if there is any chance at passing CRB reform.”
Moving on to his “top legal focus” for the NMPA this year, Israelite called out Twitter for “hiding behind the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act].” He said, “Twitter is the last major social media company that does not license and pay songwriters.” Since December 2021, the NMPA has been tracking infringements on the platform and systematically sending Twitter takedown notices. Since then, Israelite noted the NMPA has found over 240,000 unique infringements on Twitter. If Twitter does not take appropriate action to take down infringing material and safeguard against future infringements, Israelite said, “they could lose their safe harbor. What does it mean to lose your safe harbor? It means we now can sue you for copyright infringement.”
He then pivoted to discuss artificial intelligence and how it might affect songwriters. There are two main categories of concerns for Israelite when considering AI: inputs and outputs. For inputs, he is concerned that copyright-protected songs could be used as training data, and for outputs, there is worry that AI generators could create derivative works or compete with human made music. “This threatens the entire music economy,” he said. “I think that is pretty clear.”
“We have absolutely no time or attention for a debate about whether this is good or bad about whether it can be stopped or not about whether the music industry likes this or doesn’t like this, that is irrelevant,” he said. “Go back over time over every new technological development, generally, we later figure out how to live with it and make it work for us. Let’s do it now on the front end. Let’s not wait 10 years, and then figure out what to do about this.”
He suggested there are a few ways to safeguard music publishing and songwriters from oncoming AI technology. First, he said the NMPA educates lawmakers about AI’s threats to the music business. “There will likely not be legislation on this for some time,” he explained. Israelite also noted that they will be watching the legal space as court cases resolve certain questions regarding AI, but admitted, “We are not in a position today to even think about bringing legal action against any of these technologies.”
“Market response, to me, is the one that is the most relevant,” he said, considering out loud potential scenarios for the publishers in the room, like, AI generated or assisted songs coming on to streaming services and drawing attention and royalties away from the publishers’ catalogs of human-made music. He also said that some AI could be used as a songwriting tool not too dissimilar to other music creation tools of the past. “We’re only just now beginning to scratch the surface,” he said of what this technology is capable of changing within the business.
“I don’t have many answers for you today, other than what I’m hoping is that as an industry, we approach these AI issues with the mindset of this is not necessarily bad. It doesn’t matter anyway, because we’re not going to control it,” he said. “Instead, what are the opportunities? And how do we engage with it in a productive way, so we don’t look back and say, ‘It took us 20 years to figure out how to deal with AI like we did with digital music’?”
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