BBC News is reporting that musicians and artists will now be paid directly for broadcasts of their work in the U.S., without the money going first to record company, as a result of a deal struck between trade unions and industry representatives including the RIAA.
Groups that signed the agreement included the Recording Industry Association of America, a recording industry trade group, and two major artists' trade unions, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the American Federation of Musicians. |
Artists' groups the Recording Artists Coalition, the Music Managers Forum and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences also signed.
The two sides agreed to share control equally of SoundExchange, an organisation that tracks and distributes royalties from digital broadcasts.
SoundExchange made its first direct payment, of $5.2m (£3.5m), to artists and other copyright holders on 15 October.
Note the last part of the story mentioning the new European copyright directive, that says; "It gives copyright owners permission to use encryption to block the duplication of copyright-protected works."
Source: BBC.co.uk
