Streaming Dispute Sorted

After a seven year stoush, the legal battle between the two tribes, Commercial Radio Australia and the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) is over.

The PPCA representing the record labels and artists was gunning for a bigger slice around simulcast audio streaming by commercial stations. From the CRA side, they saw it as the record industry “double dipping”, as it would be paying the fee on top of existing broadcast fees.

Commercial operators will now pay simulcast licence fees either based on a percentage of their revenue or a per stream rate. They have a choice –  a per-stream fee @ $0.0059 or a percentage of revenue model calculated on the station music usage.

CRA CEO Joan Warner said: “The industry is pleased that we can now move forward in a constructive manner.”

PPCA and CRA will work together on implementing the new scheme. 

PPCA  CEO Dan Rosen said: “This is an important step in ensuring that labels and Australian recording artists receive a fair return for the online use by commercial radio stations of their valuable creative work.

“The Copyright Tribunal has recognised that artists and labels deserve payment – just as other content industries do – each time their work is used commercially online.”

The legal wrangling dates back to 2009 when PPCA requested an update to the license model for commercial radio simulcasting. It saw the two parties work through a Federal Court Case, an appeal to the Full Federal Court, a High Court review, Government inquiries, the now famous boycott where all regional  commercial stations pulled the plug on their streams for almost a year, lobbying campaigns to four separate Communications Ministers, until the umpires final decision in the Copyright Tribunal decision.

Just as that hurdle is cleared, word is the next battle will be negotiations on a new Apra agreement.