SGA's Music Advocacy

The SGA this week issued a letter to the Copyright Royalty Board -- but this was no lover letter. Essentially, the letter pointed out that only the most wealthy in the music business (labels, publishers, streaming services) are invited to the CRB process while the creators are locked out.

The SGA - along with its ally organizations, the Society of Composers and Lyricists and Music Creators North America - in December approached the US House and Senate Judiciary Committees seeking reforms to the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) music royalty rate-setting process.

Songwriter and artist David Poe was among the first songwriters to post a comment opposing freezing the mechanical royalty rate for physical and downloads promoted by the NMPA and the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Music Tech Policy  will be posting their own comments, but wanted to start with David Poe’s passionate and well-reasoned comment to the CRB, that can be downloaded below.

The SGA has joined with Music Creators North America (MCNA) in sending letters to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board asking that songwriters have a voice in how much they will be paid for their physical mechanical royalty rates. Recently streaming companies and large music publishers have asked to have royalty rates to songwriters frozen for years to come. Another group, the Nashville Songwriting Association, Intl., are siding with big money to freeze out songwriters.

Following its success in getting the  CASE Act passed, the SGA  is doubling-down on its mission to, "protect songwriters." As part of its alliance with the MCNA and other songwriting groups, the SGA is asking for more transparency with the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board.  The Board sets limits on what songwriters can be paid for CDs, vinyl records and downloads sold in the U.S. Check out the links below for more information:

More than a decade of work by SGA President Rick Carnes, along with outside-counsel Charles Sanders, paid off in December when the U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives in passing the Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act. The long-awaited new law allows songwriters and other creators to sue, in a copyright small claims court, those who use their work without payment or permission.

On January 1, 2021 the newly-passed Music Modernization Act (MMA) took effect. The law was initially launched to take into account new technology and address how it affects the sale of music creations. However, text in the law leaves room for potential corruption in the way music creators may (or may not) be paid.

The Songwriters Guild of America has compiled the latest information on resources for music creators who are in need of financial relief during the current shutdown caused by the COVID19 virus.

Last August, the SGA responded to the U.S. Copyright Office's request for comments about the “Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act of 2018: Unclaimed Royalties Study." Read our comments and see how your royalties may be affected.

Artists from across the scope of music and songwriting have come together in collaboration with the National Music Council (NMC) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) to thank music educators for their perseverance during these challenging times.

The Songwriters Guild of America joined Chris Castle in filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in support of Oracle America which is suing Google over alleged copyright violation stemming from Google's use of Java APIs.