Streaming To Pay Music Licensing Fees?

A federal judge has established a framework that could lead to three major music streaming services having to pay up to $100 million in royalties.

It looks very much as if the music streaming services at Yahoo, AOL and Real Networks aregoing to owe the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) a lot of money, according to an E-CommerceTimes story.   A decision handed down by U.S. District Judge William Conner of New York, and covering the period from July 1 2002 to the end of December 2009, means that the services couldowe up to $100 million in royalties.   Yahoo is likely to have to pay the most, going back to 2002, with RealNetworks owing from 2004 and AOL from 2005. ASCAP has claimed that its membershadn’t been adequately compensated for music streamed by the company.   "The Court’s finding represents a major step toward proper valuation of the music contributions of songwriters,composers and publishers to these types of online businesses – many of which have built much of their success on the foundation of the creative works of others. It is critical that theseorganizations share a reasonable portion of their sizable revenues with those of us whose content attracts audiences and, ultimately, helps to make their businesses viable. This decision will go along way toward protecting the ability of songwriters and composers to be compensated fairly as the use of musical works online continues to grow," said lyricist and ASCAP President and ChairmanMarilyn Bergman.