This Week in Royalties: Jan. 2 - 6

News that streaming music is now the dominant music consumption format in the world, beating out even YouTube streams, was by far the talk of the week. But plenty more happened in the world of royalties once the industry woke up from its holiday slumber…

BMI Files Federal Rate Court Action Against The Radio Music License Committee (Hypebot)
The court action comes in the wake of a Christmas Eve announcement that Irving Azoff's competing PRO Global Music Rights had agreed to an interim license with RMLC stations through September 30, 2017.

SoundExchange Could See Collected Revenue Shrink by $200 Million in 2017 (Billboard)
The primary reason for this loss is that some of the major satellite, digital radio and cable music players have begun moving away from using a compulsory license for recorded music and are instead signing direct deals with record labels.

Blackstone to Acquire Music Rights Organization SESAC (Billboard)
This marks Blackstone's first step in a new strategy to hold onto private investments longer than most equity firms.

Why Signing Up with ASCAP or BMI is Not Enough (CDBaby Blog)
While these services do perform a valuable and vital role in making sure artists get paid, they don’t do it all. In fact, they’re only concerned with one slice of the publishing pie — and that means songwriters are leaving a lot of money on the table in the form of uncollected publishing royalties.

Music Industry Cases To Watch In 2017 (Forbes)
Following are the top music legal cases to watch in 2017, what to expect, and how they could affect the industry as a whole.

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