Page 1 UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE MUSIC LICENSING STUDY + + + + + PUBLIC ROUNDTABLE + + + + + 9:00 a.m. + + + + + Wednesday, June 4, 2014 + + + + + Belmont University Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business 34 Music Square East Nashville, Tennessee 37203 + + + + + U.S. COPYRIGHT OFFICE: JACQUELINE C. CHARLESWORTH SY DAMLE RICK MARSHALL Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 2 PARTICIPANTS: JOHN C. BARKER, ClearBox Rights / Interested Parties Advancing Copyright (IPAC) HEATHER BURESH, Music Row Administrators Group SUSAN CHERTKOF, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) DAN COLEMAN, Modern Music Works Publishing MARC DRISKILL, Association of Independent Music Publishers, Nashville Chapter KENT EARLS, Universal Music Publishing Group DANIEL GERVAIS, Vanderbilt University Law School TONY GOTTLIEB, Get Songs Direct LLC BARTON HERBISON, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) GEORGE JOHNSON, Geo Music Group / George Johnson Music Publishing FREDERICK KASS, Intercollegiate Broadcasting System ROYAL WADE KIMES, Wonderment Records LEE KNIFE, Digital Media Association (DiMA) STEVEN MARKS, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) BRUCE McINTOSH, Codigo Music / Fania Records ROBERT MEITUS, Meitus Gelbert Rose LLP SAM MOSENKIS, ASCAP Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 3 DAVID OXENFORD, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP BRITTANY SCHAFFER, National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) / Loeb & Loeb LLP SCOTT SELLWOOD, Google / YouTube JANICE SOLED, My Music Screen MARC STOLLMAN, Stollman Law, PA TY TURLEY-TREJO, Brigham Young University Copyright Licensing Office REID ALAN WALTZ, SESAC, Inc. Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 4 A G E N D A TOPIC PAGE: Introduction/Opening Remarks 5 Session 1: 16 Current Licensing Landscape Session 2: 93 Sound Recordings Session 3: 146 Musical Works - Reproduction and Distribution Session 4: 201 Fair Royalty Rates and Platform Parity Session 5: 261 Data Standards Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 5 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (9:00 a.m.) 3 MS. CHARLESWORTH: I'm Jackie 4 Charlesworth; I'm General Counsel of the 5 Copyright Office. Welcome, and thank you so 6 much for being here. To my left is Sy Damle 7 of the Office of General Counsel of the 8 Copyright Office, and to my far left is Rick 9 Marshall, also in my unit, and together we'll 10 be leading our roundtable today on music 11 licensing issues. We're pleased to have so 12 many people and such a high level of interest 13 in these important issues. And I have to say 14 I can think of no better inspiration to lead 15 us to answers than this historic setting. 16 And I want to thank Belmont so 17 very much for arranging to have us here, 18 particularly Rush Hicks, Luke Gilfeather, and 19 Wes Bulla and their colleagues here at Mike 20 Curb for arranging for this space. I 21 understand tables were procured as part of the 22 process, and we really appreciate it and Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 6 1 appreciate the school's interest and 2 Nashville's interest in these issues. And we 3 look forward to hearing what you have to say. 4 Thanks too to the copyright Society of the 5 South and John Barker for leading us here. 6 And to all of our friends down here who are so 7 gracious in hosting us and sharing their views 8 from Nashville. 9 As many of you know, Register 10 Maria Pallante, the Register of Copyrights and 11 Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, has 12 identified music licensing issues as a very 13 critical priority, I would say, in terms of 14 the review, the ongoing review of our 15 copyright laws. I think there is a widespread 16 view in the industry, although not shared 17 necessarily by all based on the comments I've 18 read, that much of the system could be 19 improved, and that's what we're here to 20 discuss today. Many of you here today and 21 others who aren't in the room submitted 22 lengthy, sometimes lengthy but always Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 7 1 thoughtful written with the level of thought, 2 detail, the number of footnotes in some of 3 them. But they were very thoughtful and I 4 think honest responses to our inquiries, the 5 many questions we posed in our notice. And we 6 really appreciate that, that helps us so much. 7 Because it helps us to sort of understand 8 where the fault lines are and what areas we 9 really need to tackle in order to make 10 progress in this area. 11 Some of our music licensing 12 systems, as you all well know, date back over 13 a century, and the systems are complex and can 14 be very difficult to navigate. And they're 15 not always perceived as equitable, I think is 16 fair to say. Some for different reasons. And 17 while they're deeply embedded in the 18 marketplace and have played an important role, 19 I think it's fair to say that the music market 20 has been shaped and, in some people's view, it 21 may be constrained by the traditional 22 structures on which we continue to rely. And Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 8 1 that's why we're looking at these issues right 2 now. So the questions before us really are in 3 some sense simple as a base, which is, what is 4 working and what is not, and for the stuff 5 that's not working how might the government 6 assist in helping to fix it. 7 And I'm hoping that as a result of 8 this study and your comments and participation 9 we'll be able to at least think about charting 10 a course or a path forward that will solve 11 some of the issues or resolve some of the 12 issues that have been identified, and also, 13 very importantly, protect the livelihoods of 14 music creators without whom we wouldn't even 15 be having this discussion. 16 That's of paramount concern and 17 one of the reasons we've come to Nashville, 18 because it generates so much incredible music. 19 And now before I turn to some housekeeping 20 matters I'm honored to turn this podium over 21 to Dr. Bob Fisher, president of Belmont, 22 who's going to make a few remarks. Thank you Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 9 1 so much for joining us this morning. 2 DR. FISHER: Thank you so much for 3 coming. We're excited to have you at one part 4 of Belmont. Belmont's kind of spread all over 5 Music Row. And if you head all the way south 6 to where Music Row eventually ends you run 7 into Belmont University. Hope you get a 8 chance to get down there before you leave. 9 But we welcome you. This is a very important 10 topic to us. Your work matters to Belmont, it 11 matters to our students. 12 We have about 1700 going on 2,000 13 students in the Curb College of Entertainment 14 and Music Business who are counting on you to 15 make sure that their property gets protected. 16 We have in addition to that in the School of 17 Music about 800 more performers. So out of 18 our 7,000 students almost 3,000 of them are in 19 music. So you know Belmont rocks and twangs 20 and boops and every sound you can imagine, all 21 sorts of music, and we're very -- we find this 22 is very, very important to us. Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 10 1 You're in Columbia Studio A, a 2 place where great country legends recorded. 3 And in fact a place where music historians 4 here in Nashville say Nashville got 5 transformed when Bob Dylan came to town and 6 recorded "Nashville Skyline." And when his 7 friends in L.A. said why are you going to 8 Nashville, he said the musicians. And there 9 are incredible musicians that live here in 10 Nashville. Sometimes called the backup, but 11 they're not, they're the deal. 12 The amazing musicians who are here 13 populated this studio for -- starting then not 14 only continue to be the home of great country 15 hits but then, you know, Boz Scaggs came to 16 town and Simon and Garfunkel came to town and 17 all that exciting stuff. And we also own and 18 operate Oceanway Studio just down the street 19 where I met Bob Seger, my hero, and he said, 20 you own the finest music studio in the world. 21 I love that. Met Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris 22 Martin in happier times. Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Page 11 1 I met Paul Simon and Edie 2 Brickell, always happy times for them. All 3 who come to record in our studios, and we're 4 just -- and our students sometimes, not always 5 but sometimes we have to keep them away.