In a March court decision, BMI won a decision that will force concert promoters to pay songwriters more for music performed at live shows. Unsurprising, companies that will have to pay the creators a higher rate are unhappy.
Live Nation, AEG, and the North American Concert Promoters Association (NACPA) have filed an appeal, hoping to reverse the decision. BMI said it was not surprised by the industry giant’s appeal to the decision that might lower their corporate profitability.
“Given Live Nation, AEG, and NACPA’s bizarre position throughout the trial that concertgoers attend concerts for the experience of the staging, videos, and light shows, as opposed to the actual songs and music being performed, their appeal was not a surprise to BMI,” Mike O’Neill, President & CEO of BMI said in a statement Wednesday. “For decades, the live concert industry has fought to keep rates suppressed. And even now, when they are making more money than ever, in more ways than ever, they are determined to deny songwriters and composers the fair value of their work, despite the fact that without their contributions, a concert wouldn’t even be possible. BMI will continue to fight on behalf of our affiliates, the creators of the music that is the very backbone of the live concert industry, to prevent that outcome.”
BMI characterizes the rate change as correcting what had been “decades of below-market rates” paid to composers, setting a rate that is 138% higher than the previous standard. It also expanded what revenue streams for promoters that royalties could be collected from.
Notably, held-back tickets sold directly from promoters through the secondary ticket market – a long known but seldom talked about aspect of the concert and sports ticket distribution model – will now be subject to royalties. Live Nation admitted to the practice of facilitating bands selling tickets directly on resale marketplaces without having been made available to the public just a few years back.
Before filing the appeal, Live Nation had downplayed the victory for BMI and songwriters, saying that it had done its job by minimizing the rate increase to far less than what the artists had hoped to get.
“We advocated on behalf of artists to keep their costs down and managed to hold the increase to less than 1/3 of BMI’s proposed increase,” Live Nation said in a statement at the time. “This will cost the performers we work with approximately $15 million a year spread out over thousands of artists, and cost increases for Live Nation directly are not material.”
