Here's an interesting story you might enjoy:

Dear NMPA Member and prospective member:
On Monday, January 28, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)
begins the hearing that will determine mechanical rates for
every songwriter and music publisher in America. It will be the
most important rate hearing in the history of the music industry
because in addition to setting rates for physical products, rates
will be set for the first time ever for digital products such as
digital downloads, subscription services and ringtones.

The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) will be
representing the interests of songwriters and music publishers
and will be fighting vigorously to protect those interests to
ensure that musical compositions are compensated fairly.

On the other side of this fight stands the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) and the Digital Media Association
(DiMA). Both the RIAA and DiMA have proposed significant
reductions in mechanical royalty rates that would be disastrous
for songwriters and music publishers. This is literally a fight for
the survival of our industry.

To give you an example of what is at stake, the current rate for
physical phonorecords is 9.1 cents. The NMPA is proposing an
increase to 12.5 cents per song. The RIAA, however, has
proposed slashing the rate to approximately 6 cents a song - a
cut of more than one-third the current rate!

For permanent digital downloads, NMPA is proposing a rate of
15 cents per track because the costs involved are much less than
for physical products. The RIAA has proposed the outrageous
rate of approximately 5 - 5.5 cents per track, and DiMA is
proposing even less.

If you find that troubling, it gets worse. For interactive
streaming services, which some analysts believe will be the
future of the music industry, NMPA is proposing a rate of the
greater of 12.5% of revenue, 27.5% of content costs, or a micro-
penny calculation based on usage. The RIAA actually proposed
that songwriters and music publishers should get the equivalent
of .58% of revenue. This isn't a typo - less than 1%. And DiMA is
taking the shocking and offensive position that songwriters' and
music publishers' mechanical rights should be zero, because
DiMA does not believe we have any such rights!

The initial hearing will last four weeks, with the three permanent
Copyright Royalty Judges hearing arguments Mondays through
Thursdays from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm each day. At the conclusion
of the initial hearing, there will be more discovery, followed by a
rebuttal hearing in May, and a final decision expected on
October 2.

The NMPA will be spending millions of dollars in this proceeding
to protect the interests of songwriters and music publishers
against the much larger record labels and digital media
companies. And although we face such an enormous fight, we
have an incredible advantage - we represent songwriters,
without whom the record labels and digital music services could
not exist.

As always, we appreciate your support of the NMPA which allows
us to wage this fight on your behalf.


David Israelite
President & CEO


You can see it at the NMPA website:
http://www.nmpa.org/aboutnmpa/presidentscorner.asp

Peace,
Alan