Discovery Networks Corners Composers in Music Royalties Battle

[DesireInspires]

Seen this over at another forum:
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https://variety.com/2019/music/news/...es-1203434924/

"Discovery has informed many of its top composers that, beginning in 2020, they must give up all performance royalties paid for U.S. airings, and they they must sign away their ability to collect royalties on all past shows on its networks."

Wow! This would be a Dagger for the industry if more networks follow suit...

Composers will lose 80-90% of their income so that Discovery Network can add an extra 1% in quarterly revenue.

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Any thoughts?

[Kolstad]

Its the old industrial magnats who are fighting to stay afloat. Let them go, and sign elsewhere.

The Society of composers and lyricists (SCL), now advises their members to not provide music for Discovery and associates or sign contracts with them.

https://thescl.com/

[DesireInspires]

Its the old industrial magnats who are fighting to stay afloat. Let them go, and sign elsewhere.

It’s tough out here!

[jdstamper]

Will ASCAP, BMI and other PRO’s help to fight this?

[Shalee]

A lot of people need to fight this, because if they get away with it with little fanfare, and the whole industry follows suit, we are toast.

[MBantle]

Not sure you've seen this page where you can add your voice: https://yourmusicyourfuture.com
Cheers,
Matt

[tresero]

Wow, this is bad. I do think a composers' union would make a lot of sense. There needs to be a strong united voice.

Tom

I would like to think that would happen, but it won't. Besides, Discovery knows that there are plenty of "composers" with garageband that will be happy to take the deal. I wish it were otherwise, but barring an act of congress, this will likely only get worse

[DesireInspires]

Will ASCAP, BMI and other PRO’s help to fight this?

Yes!

ASCAP statement: https://www.ascap.com/news-events/artic ... a5mETVJTU#

BMI statement: https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/bmis-pos ... y-networks

SESAC statement: https://www.sesac.com/#!/headlines/arti ... -composers

[Casey H]

Please spread the word on social media. If you are on Twitter there is an exact tweet you can send. Also write your local representatives. If you don't know who they are or how to contact them: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-r ... tive/addr/


Discovery networks (owner of many channels) is trying to screw us out of our music royalty income. Yup, a multi-billion dollar corporation with a CEO who gets a $120M salary wants to break the back of songwriters and composers who write music for the shows.

Please read below. If you are on Twitter, you can copy/paste the tweet. If not, please spread the word wherever you can and help. Thanks.

The Your Music Your Future community needs your help. Discovery Networks is planning to cut composer and songwriter income by 90% as of December 31st. Variety even called them out on it: https://bit.ly/2qZ423k So we’re rallying together to take ACTION to help stop them.

Action step: Here’s a tweet you can copy and paste:

Happy Holidays, composers! @Discovery Networks found a way to cut your income by 90%. RT if you want composers to be paid fairly. https://bit.ly/2qZ423k @Gold_Rush @DeadliestCatch @StreetOutlaws #DiscoveryGreed #yourmusicyourfuture @yrmusicyrfuture

Whatever you decide to tweet, please use the link (https://bit.ly/2qZ423k) and include the same hashtags (#DiscoveryGreed and #yourmusicyourfuture) for maximum impact!

Discovery is even pressuring composers to take the 90% cut going backwards for shows that are already on the air. The threat is that if they don’t take the deal, Discovery will strip these composers’ music out of all their existing shows (!), and the composers will never work with any of the networks again.
If we don’t take a stand, this practice will spread to other network groups and everyone will be paid much less money in the future—both composers and songwriters. And where will great composers come from when they can no longer make a living?
YMYF has signed up more than 6,400 composers. As a community, we have formidable power if everyone tweets. But we all need to take action.

Creator groups from around the world, inspired by Your Music Your Future, have pledged to tweet with us in support of composers. Please be sure to do your part!

[MBantle]

Please spread the word on social media. If you are on Twitter there is an exact tweet you can send. Also write your local representatives. If you don't know who they are or how to contact them: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-r ... tive/addr/


Discovery networks (owner of many channels) is trying to screw us out of our music royalty income. Yup, a multi-billion dollar corporation with a CEO who gets a $120M salary wants to break the back of songwriters and composers who write music for the shows.

Please read below. If you are on Twitter, you can copy/paste the tweet. If not, please spread the word wherever you can and help. Thanks.

The Your Music Your Future community needs your help. Discovery Networks is planning to cut composer and songwriter income by 90% as of December 31st. Variety even called them out on it: https://bit.ly/2qZ423k So we’re rallying together to take ACTION to help stop them.

Action step: Here’s a tweet you can copy and paste:

Happy Holidays, composers! @Discovery Networks found a way to cut your income by 90%. RT if you want composers to be paid fairly. https://bit.ly/2qZ423k @Gold_Rush @DeadliestCatch @StreetOutlaws #DiscoveryGreed #yourmusicyourfuture @yrmusicyrfuture

Whatever you decide to tweet, please use the link (https://bit.ly/2qZ423k) and include the same hashtags (#DiscoveryGreed and #yourmusicyourfuture) for maximum impact!

Discovery is even pressuring composers to take the 90% cut going backwards for shows that are already on the air. The threat is that if they don’t take the deal, Discovery will strip these composers’ music out of all their existing shows (!), and the composers will never work with any of the networks again.
If we don’t take a stand, this practice will spread to other network groups and everyone will be paid much less money in the future—both composers and songwriters. And where will great composers come from when they can no longer make a living?
YMYF has signed up more than 6,400 composers. As a community, we have formidable power if everyone tweets. But we all need to take action.

Creator groups from around the world, inspired by Your Music Your Future, have pledged to tweet with us in support of composers. Please be sure to do your part!

Could not agree more! What is even more alarming are the consequences for those composers not based in the US: https://completemusicupdate.com/article ... -momentum/

Quoting from the aforementioned article:

"Technically, outside the US, most songwriters and composers would not be able to sign a deal that assigned the performing rights in their work to the library or producer, and/or which excluded the future payment of performing right royalties. Because most songwriters and composers will be a member of a collecting society and – in most countries – when writers join such a society they actually assign all their performing rights to that organisation. Which means those writers are not in a position to include any performing rights and/or to exclude future performing right payments in any deals they do with a music library or a TV, film, gaming or advertising company."

Cheers,
Matt