Sweeping New Legislation Highlights Just How Much Music And Tech Need Each Other

Last year, from spring to summer, two organizations — the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) — made their case to the Copyright Royalty Board that Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon and Pandora weren't paying songwriters enough when people streamed their compositions, a process that NMPA head David Israelite likened to "war." Those compositions, which are legally discrete from the recordings of those songs, are covered by "mechanical" licenses, a term that's roughly 100 years old and originally referred to the punch-card copies of songs that player pianos would use to keep sarsaparilla joints bopping, but now simply means any reproduction of a composition, including hearing it through a streaming service.

The that is music licensing in the U.S. is particularly spaghetti-like when it comes to these mechanicals,