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SoundExchange kind of works like you describe but not quite. You report to them “I played X for user Y at time Z,” and they go cool, for the billing period and

SoundExchange kind of works like you describe but not quite. You report to them “I played X for user Y at time Z,” and they go cool, for the billing period and that play count, it’s $4,000 to clear your rights. What’s left unspoken is you still need a redistributable copy of the recording before you can do that. SoundExchange does not provide that and buying something from iTunes or Amazon, for example, still doesn’t get you legal in most cases. You’re looking at Beatport Pro and even more expensive things like that designed for professionals. Worse: SX only covers the recording. You still have to talk to the big three licensing agencies about the written music. (That was my understanding about 15 years ago in Internet radio. This point might have changed.) There isn’t an insert coin receive MP3 with all rights attached service, which sounds like how you’ve understood SoundExchange to work, and what you’re lobbying for in video. I agree that would be cool but it’s extremely unlikely for the same reason you can’t do it with SX.

jedberg 5y ago
I'm talking more about the system that radio uses, where anyone who wants to run a radio station has a place to get the content and pay the same fee.
- bungledash 5y ago
  Oh yeah, I’m familiar with that, too. That makes more sense. Believe it or not that doesn’t clear the big three for music either, or at least didn’t when I got out of the business a decade ago. But BMI and such have special deals with real radio that would make Internet radio weep, so you’re right it’s better. (Former MD here.) That’s the likely outcome. They’ll probably push for the mechanical video recording and the creative content within it to be different licenses just like music. And then you’ll still have to license the music within it, probably both the recording and the creative. IP structure in complex media is so entwined there won’t be a simple answer here, I’m afraid. I wish it weren’t so. The worst outcome possible would be a lot of creative folks in a television production realizing the distinction between the two music licenses and creating a setup where there is five or six for video (script license, series license, translation license, likeness licenses, blah blah).
- horsawlarway 5y ago
  I cannot agree strongly enough on this. It's really, really shitty that media consumption has been commoditized in the way it has - with every service having to secure rights (at different times and varying prices), and users constantly being forced to either add an additional service or cancel a service to watch the content they actually want to watch. The radio licensing model would have (and still would be) SO much freaking better.

jedberg 5y ago

I'm talking more about the system that radio uses, where anyone who wants to run a radio station has a place to get the content and pay the same fee.

bungledash 5y ago
Oh yeah, I’m familiar with that, too. That makes more sense. Believe it or not that doesn’t clear the big three for music either, or at least didn’t when I got out of the business a decade ago. But BMI and such have special deals with real radio that would make Internet radio weep, so you’re right it’s better. (Former MD here.) That’s the likely outcome. They’ll probably push for the mechanical video recording and the creative content within it to be different licenses just like music. And then you’ll still have to license the music within it, probably both the recording and the creative. IP structure in complex media is so entwined there won’t be a simple answer here, I’m afraid. I wish it weren’t so. The worst outcome possible would be a lot of creative folks in a television production realizing the distinction between the two music licenses and creating a setup where there is five or six for video (script license, series license, translation license, likeness licenses, blah blah).
horsawlarway 5y ago
I cannot agree strongly enough on this. It's really, really shitty that media consumption has been commoditized in the way it has - with every service having to secure rights (at different times and varying prices), and users constantly being forced to either add an additional service or cancel a service to watch the content they actually want to watch. The radio licensing model would have (and still would be) SO much freaking better.