Pop songwriter Maureen McDonald (aka Mozella) has joined the discussion about publishing licensing in the US, including the Department of Justice’s push for ‘100% licensing’ in the sector.
Her guest column for Daily News Bin is a neat summary of the arguments being marshalled by publishers and PROs in the US for modernisation of the DoJ’s consent decrees, and their anger at its refusal to consider that while moving for 100% licensing instead.
“At the moment, the master recording of a song owned by a record label is earning about 14 times as much as the songwriter of the same song,” wrote McDonald.
“For example, I co-wrote and own about 23% of the song Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. Pandora streamed Wrecking ball 260 million times according to the statement they sent to me. They paid me $3,000. My payment was similar from Spotify. The Wrecking Ball video also has nearly a billion (yes, that’s billion with a B) views on YouTube and I’ll will most likely make another $3,000 there.”
Meanwhile, McDonald said that 100% licensing will throw “the entire music licensing system into unnecessary chaos for no good reason” while putting songwriters off a staple of their business: collaboration with one another.
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