Lack of Music Rights Database a Problem for Broadcasters
LAS VEGAS -- The lack of a reliable comprehensive database of music rights is an increasing problem for radio and TV broadcasters, said speakers at two NAB Show panels Tuesday and Wednesday. With the emergence of new performance rights organizations (PROs) and the increasing prevalence of songs with fragmented licenses shared among multiple PROs, broadcasters can no longer be sure if they have the right to use the music they're broadcasting, said Charles Warfield, a longtime radio broadcaster and senior adviser for YMF Media. “You want to know the terms under which you're doing business,” Warfield said. “There's so much uncertainty and lack of transparency.”
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Though PROs such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and BMI have online databases listing song rights holders, those databases rely on third-party sources and aren't intended to be definitive, said BMI General Counsel Stuart Rosen. “BMI doesn't want to become the insurer of the whole industry,” Rosen said.
Broadcasters used to address the issue of not being able to definitively determine ownership of music by buying blanket licenses to the three principal PROs and thus covering all bases, numerous panelists said. But the emergence of fourth PRO, Global Music Rights, ruined that approach in radio, especially because broadcasters can't determine what music GMR owns, Warfield said. “I'm being asked to send a check to GMR but I don't know what artists or licenses they have,” he said. “Where does this end?” he said. “We can't go back to a world where there's only three licensing bodies,” Rosen said. GMR has proved an issue for TV stations in only some markets, but more PROs is seen as an issue in TV, too, said Weil Gotshal attorney Benjamin Marks. Even though there are more PROs, broadcasters still have the same amount of money to pay them, said Television Music Licensing Committee Executive Director Janet McHugh. “It's still the same pie,” she said.
A rights database would also help TV broadcasters determine what music is in the programs they play, and who owns it, pieces of information that are very difficult to determine before a show is aired, said Tribune Assistant General Counsel Chuck Sennet, chairman of the TVMLC. Fragmented licenses, where multiple PROs may own a license, can lead to either radio or TV stations infringing if they unknowingly didn't pay all the rights holders, Marks said.
Panelists at the events were divided about whether such a rights database should be created through legislation. Congress should “step in,” said lobbyist Elizabeth Frazee, who represents small live-music venues such as restaurants and wineries. The lack of a database makes determining rights holders impossible for her clients, she said. All stakeholders see the value in such a database, but it doesn't merit government intervention, Rosen said. A government effort to build such a database would take far too long, McHugh said.