Music Choice announced a joint settlement with the RIAA, AmericanFederation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and AmericanFederation of Musicians (AFM) for royalty rates and terms through 2007;the agreement covers the time period of January 1, 2002, to December31, 2007.
Music Choice provides cable and satellite customers with 54 channelsof commercial-free, CD-quality music 24 hours a day. Headquartered inHorsham, Pa., the service is a partnership among subsidiaries ofMicrosoft, Motorola, Sony Corporation of America, Warner Music Group,EMI Music, Adelphia Cable Communications, Comcast Cable Communications,AT&T Broadban, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable.
Also joining in the settlement were other cable/satellitemusic-subscription services, DMX Music and Muzak. Theagreement—submitted as a petition to the U.S. Copyright Office,which must officially ratify the terms—was recently published inthe Federal Register. The organization SoundExchange will beresponsible for collecting royalties from these digital music channelsand distributing them to artists, record companies and other copyrightholders.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the music industrygroups that provides us with license terms and avoids costly andtime-consuming arbitration,” said David J. Del Beccaro, president andCEO of Music Choice.
For more information on the service, visit www.musicchoice.com.
