Future of Music Coalition

Organization set up to collect and distribute streaming mechanical royalties to songwriters and publishers in the US.

Also, if you record for a label and your record hasn’t yet recouped, you still likely can collect mechanicals and performance royalties if you are registered.

Redid the math and it’s actually closer to a 26% boost!

Column: The Corporation for Public Broadcast is ‘winding down.’ What does that mean for public radio and TV? The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced it is “wind-down” operations. What does this mean for public radio and TV?

I gave an in-depth interview with my hometown Chicago Tribune about what’s going to happen to NPR and PBS, and how cutting public media is part of a broader anti-democratic ideological project.

Correct! Thanks for flagging!

(Obvs this doesn’t take into account label deals, publishing/admin deals, distributor fees etc.)

Actually thanks for asking—we miscalculated, it’s closer to 26%! Composition performance royalties and mechanicals together add up to 21% of total royalty payout, but if you start collecting that it’s a 26% increase.

Pulling numbers from Mannatt’s helpful calculator. Granted, it’s an oversimplification given different subscription tiers and international differences. But we’ve found it’s a pretty accurate data point. www.manatt.com/music-stream...

The fastest way for musicians who record original material to improve their Spotify royalties: register for a PRO (ASCAP or BMI) and register for the MLC. You will immediately start earning about 21% more from your streams.

The State of New Orleans Culture: 20 Years After Katrina on August 28 — The Ella Project — On Thursday, August 28 , The Ella Project presents The State of New Orleans Culture: 20 Years After Katrina , a public panel discussion from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the New Orleans Jazz Museum , m...

Come see me on this panel! Or, better yet, come see Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes, Edward "Juicey" Jackson, Tamara Jackson, Fred Johnson, Delfeayo Marsalis, and BIg Chief Howard Miller on this panel, moderated by Lolis Eric Elie. I'll be listening more than talking.

ellanola.org/upcoming/the...

Oh Mary was so delightful!!!

Opinion | Lina Khan: A Secret to Zohran Mamdani’s Success

She’s right: musicians’ professional lives typically involve being small businesspeople as well as laborers, which at times can be enormously rewarding, but can also mean encountering many forms of precarity simultaneously. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/o...

Awesome to see @linamkhan.bsky.social recognize musicians in her @nytimesoped.bsky.social opinion piece as an example of small businesses under threat from consolidation and extractive business models.

Not sure there is a contradiction!

Some basics: why does Spotify pay less than some rival services? One key reason is the free tier. Ads bring in only ~13% of Spotify revenue, but more than half of monthly users are not paid subscribers. Subscription dollars subsidize the ad supported tier and that drives per stream rates down.

Sadly no DC date on this tour

Our allies at @afm-union.bsky.social local 802 are hosting an info session on Gen AI! Open to all musicians! Info here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

FireAid’s concerts raised $100 million for recovery. Here's how it's being distributed The millions raised by the benefit concert in January is just a sliver of the billions in damage inflicted on Altadena and the Palisades. The Times spoke with FireAid organizers about how the funds ha...

Here’s where the Fire Aid money went: www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Broadcasters and big tech keep pointing fingers at each other, but serious antimonopoly policy analysis means no one is let off the hook. Open Markets gets it right.

Our allies at @afm-union.bsky.social local 802 are hosting an info session on Gen AI! Open to all musicians! Info here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

DC is so lucky to have the Fort Reno concert series. Free shows in the park every summer since 1968. What’s happening in your town?

Which is exactly the point—the need to work toward a framing that allows for the articulation of shared commitments, and the difficulty of doing so! As this exchange regrettably illustrates!

Apologies, intent was not to dunk, but to reframe. We know you get there is nuance!

Nuance is good! Characterizing different views of fair use as “targeting fair use for destruction” doesn’t seem particularly nuanced!

Not at all! The issue is the habit of describing people with a different view of fair use as having no commitment to or investment in fair use.

There are more options available!

Well no, it’s simply: fair use for everyone, accessible remedies to valid claims of infringement also for everyone.

Fair use for everyone, accessible legal remedies to valid claims of infringement also for everyone.

The notion that fair use is always under attack is not without some truth, and yet also a very incomplete description of the dynamic. It can also be a self-fulfilling story. (The same is true for stories like “copyright is always under attack”.)

For those of us who care deeply about the expressive freedom that fair use enables, it’s a dilemma! For example, when people argue (wrongly in our view) that unlicensed AI training generally qualifies as fair use, it undermines many creators’ investment in preserving fair use.