The Next Battle Over Songwriter Streaming Royalties Has Begun. Don’t Expect a Quick Fight

Trending on Billboard There’s an important type of royalty owed to songwriters in the United States that operates differently than any other, and the music industry’s latest battle over it began on Monday (Oct. 5). Don’t expect the fight to be a short one.  The royalty, called a “mechanical,” is owed to musicmakers when their songs are reproduced into a different medium. The term dates back to the days before recorded music existed, when songs were reproduced onto a cylindrical roll for a player piano to deliver music on demand. Related Though the music industry is now long past the point where using the term “mechanicals” makes sense, it nevertheless stuck. Today, a mechanical royalty can refer to the mechanical reproduction of a song onto a physical object like vinyl records, cassettes and CDs, or the digital reproduction of a song on streaming services or digital stores like iTunes.  The United States is the only country in the world that regulates this royalty type in this way, much to the chagrin of just about everyone involved — from music publishers to songwriters to streaming services and more. Everywhere else, these rates are determined by free market negotiations between the company
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