Peaking my interest this week was an article at TechDirt, titled “EMI Sneakily Trying To Pretend Many Of Its Artists Can’t Reclaim Their Copyrights”. It raised awareness to a blog post by Michael Robertson, the CEO of MP3Tunes, that is titled “Screwed FOREVER Artist List (Is Your Favorite Artist On It?)”.
The basic summary of the problem addressed in these articles is as follows, as pulled from Michael’s post.
Beginning in 2013, rights of certain songs can revert to the original artist, meaning they’ll get all future royalties instead of the record label they originally signed with. The one big exception is if the song is a “work for hire” - commissioned by an organization and not the independent work of another party. (This is an overly simplified explanation but hopefully you get the point.) Sadly for artists, record labels have fraudulently declared many songs as “works for hire” allowing the labels to keep ownership. Artists in this category will be screwed forever.
This is because in the 1976 Copyright Act content creators have the right to terminate copyright assignments after 35 years. Mr. Robertson goes on to list all the artists whose sound recordings appear to have been registered as works for hire by EMI; while the TechDirt article analyzes the current state of music industry problems, history behind the Copyright Act and some specific language in it, most importantly of which is the definition of a work for hire found in 17 USC §101:
A “work made for hire” is—
(1) a work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or
(2) a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire. For the purpose of the foregoing sentence, a “supplementary work” is a work prepared for publication as a secondary adjunct to a work by another author for the purpose of introducing, concluding, illustrating, explaining, revising, commenting upon, or assisting in the use of the other work, such as forewords, afterwords, pictorial illustrations, maps, charts, tables, editorial notes, musical arrangements, answer material for tests, bibliographies, appendixes, and indexes, and an “instructional text” is a literary, pictorial, or graphic work prepared for publication and with the purpose of use in systematic instructional activities.
Option (1) is not the route the industry is trying to take in this fight, instead it is based on the “compilation” language, as summarized by TechDirt.
The RIAA has been trying to claim that any albums are really a “compilation” so they qualify as a “collective work” under the law, which does create a work-for-hire situation. But there are other conditions that need to be met, and it’s unclear if those have been. Plus, the claim that an album is a “collective work” is a pretty weak one all around.
An album should not be classified as a “collective work” by the artist/band that is commissioned to deliver it. Most record deals are for a certain number of albums to be released on a particular label. The label is not interested in an album’s songs individually until it comes time to pick a single. Furthermore, when a band/artist goes into the studio pursuant to a deal, they know full well they are putting together a whole album, not just one individual song after the other. They want the songs to flow well and the album as a whole to sound good when played from front to back. Generally, a band’s/artist’s sound will evolve over time. When you hear a song for a particular artist, you can probably tell what era it was during (based on the albums they have released).
Furthermore, ignore any of the legal implications and look at this solely from a business perspective. The record label has had 35 years to build up a good relationship with the artist in regards to the albums they commissioned. One would think that if the record label is doing all they can for the artist and still generating some revenue after that much time, the artist may not even consider exercising this right they have. If the record label has proceeded to do nothing in those 35 years for the artist, why must they try and impede the ability of an artist to exercise this right to reacquire their copyright? Especially if there’s questions of royalties being paid out, which many major labels are facing accusations of lately. This is just one more thing for bands and artists to take into consideration when choosing who they do business with.
As an aside, this really peaked my interest because of four of the bands listed on Mr. Robertson’s list: Anberlin, Over It, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Yellowcard. Three of the four (Anberlin, Red Jumpsuit, and Yellowcard) are from Florida, and there aren’t many shows of theirs I missed dating back to the early days of each. Over It happens to be one of the first bands I ever saw live (opening for Rufio, Motion City Soundtrack, and Northstar — amazing show). These bands all work (worked in the case of Over It) hard for what they love to do, and that is make music. It would be an absolute shame if any of them (and any of the artists on EMI) were unable to exercise the right they have after 35 years to reclaim their works, especially if the business relationship just hadn’t worked out.
Recently on one of my go to sites for music news (absolutepunk.net) a discussion was started regarding people’s favorite EPs (extended play). I thought this was an interesting topic to ponder, as well as a great way to listen to some of my music catalog that I hadn’t in some time. I have decided to post my list of favorite EPs below, in no particular order, for those who would like to try some new bands out. And yes, I did get a little carried away… There are just so many good EPs it turns out. Most of these EPs were released before a full length (LP) and really got me interested in the particular band, others were just a supplement to an already impressive catalog of releases. I’m sure I have left out numerous EPs that I also enjoyed, these are just some of the first that came to mind. (There are links to the EPs on Spotify where available, just click on the album name)
Go Radio - Do Overs and Second Chances
Cartel - The Ransom EP
JamisonParker - Notes & Photographs
Something Corporate - Audioboxer EP
Punchline - The Rewind EP
The Starting Line - Make Yourself At Home EP
Acceptance - Black Lines to Battlefields
Mayday Parade - Tales Told By Dead Friends
Woodale - Finish What You Start
The Morning Light - The Sounds of Love
Yellowcard - Underdog EP
The Early November - For All of This
The Dangerous Summer - If You Could Only Keep Me Alive
The Format - EP
Late Night Habit - The Single Life
Parade The Day - To Keep Us Moving
E For Explosion - Hold Grudges Not Hands
Hit The Lights - Until We Get Caught
Dear You - Journals
Mercy Mercedes - 1.21 Giggawatts
And a special bonus… The Sophomore Attempt - Hallways
