SoundExchange Reporting Blog

This week there was a small, but not insignificant, bit of news for you classical music folks: NPR has secured an agreement from Naxos, one of the world’s largest classical music labels, to waive the performance complement of the DMCA. This waiver applies to all public radio stations covered by the CPB-SoundExchange agreement and eliminates the need to abide by the performance complement for any classical music whose rights are held by Naxos.

So – good news! Couple of things to bear in mind here:

1. This does not affect the reporting of classical music to SoundExchange via Public Interactive; that is, the same reporting rules continue to apply (e.g. report each track separately, include album titles, etc.).

2. This only applies to stations covered by the CPB-SoundExchange agreement. If your station has not explicitly opted-in to be covered by the deal, then the waiver does not apply to you.

3. The waiver only applies to the playing of recordings owned by Naxos.

NPR views this as, hopefully, the beginning of a process of approaching other labels as well. Let’s all cross our fingers. It’s the little things…

Slowly but surely, Q2 2010 SoundExchange reporting data is starting to dribble in to us here at Public Interactive. Thanks to you early birds for getting us your data already!

For the rest of you, please please PLEASE don’t wait until the deadline to get us your Q2 data. I encourage you to submit your reporting data as soon as your reporting weeks are over! If you wait until the last minute, problems can arise (not to mention other important business like, say, pledge drives). The earlier you get us your data, the more time we have to work together to fix any data problems and ensure that PI can generate and submit reports on your station’s behalf.

Q2 2010 SoundExchange Reporting Steps:

1. Choose your 14-day reporting period, which must be two 7-day-consecutive periods completely contained between  April 1 – June 30
2. Create properly formatted playlist logs and obtain streaming access logs from your stream host for your chosen reporting period
3. Submit playlist and streaming log files to Public Interactive using Composer Basic or Composer Pro
4. Update/enter the guide (schedule) information for each of your content streams in Composer Basic or Composer Pro, so that we can integrate playlists for those syndicated shows that you stream
5. Specify the start dates of your two chosen reporting weeks using Composer Basic/Pro
6. Contact me to let me know you’ve uploaded your data, updated your guide(s) and specified your reporting dates
7. Complete all of these steps by Friday, July 9, 2010
8. Rinse, lather, repeat in Q3…

Of course, there are some exceptions to the above. For example, some stations (they know who they are) must report for the entire quarter. Also, Composer Pro clients that enter playlist data using that tool don’t need to upload playlist files, and PI streaming clients don’t need to upload streaming logs, etc. But, otherwise, them’s the rules.

Oh yes, if you produce a syndicated program and are not yet providing us with playlists, please review this page on what data we need from you, then contact me so we can start collecting your show’s data.

A simple yet excellent question was posed again to me today that may be obvious to some but really isn’t obvious to all. So, I’ve added it to our FAQs, which I probably should’ve done a long time ago.

Here it is..

Q: Do SoundExchange reports supersede or replace the reports we file with BMI, ASCAP or SESAC?

A: No. While all four are performing rights organizations, BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC collect and distribute royalties for songwriters, composers and music publishers related to the public performance of their copyrighted work. SoundExchange, on the other hand, collects and distributes royalties for featured recording artists and sound recording master rights owners (i.e. recording labels or independent musicians) related to the non-interactive digital transmissions (e.g. via the internet or satellite radio) of their copyrighted recordings.

So, in short, no, SoundExchange reporting does not supersede (or eliminate the need for) BMI/ASCAP/SESAC reporting.

At the recent RAIN Summit West in Las Vegas, there was an interesting session given on the basics of SoundExchange – who they are and what they do, including a little music copyright 101. The session was led by Kyle Funn, SoundExchange’s Manager of Licensing and Enforcement. Below is the video of his talk, which I highly recommend that everybody watch. It’s short, only 6:48 (it was a PechaKucha presentation), and is well worth the time.

One thing to bear in mind: the terms of the CPB-SoundExchange agreement overrides some of the basics that Kyle talks about (e.g. “writing a check”). This session is obviously addressed to all stations streaming music, not just public broadcasters.

Anyway, I recommend that everybody give this a listen.

Last week Public Interactive officially generated and submitted Q1 2010 reports to SoundExchange on behalf of 265 stations. The reports covered 373 content streams and 11.5 million Music Aggregate Tuning Hours, a nice increase from the Q4 2009 reports. Big thanks to all of you who submitted data for Q1!

Of course, there are still a number of you who didn’t submit data for Q1, and so are not in compliance with the terms of the CPB-SoundExchange agreement. If you have not been reporting, there’s no better time than the present to get in compliance before the stream police come a-knockin’. You’ve been warned.

Anyway, time now to get cracking on Q2 reports, which cover data from April 1 through June 30. The official deadline to get us your Q2 2010 reporting data will be Friday July 9, 2010.

If you have questions about how this all works, what data you need to give us and such, then please review this page on the basics of SoundExchange reporting through Public Interactive.

A few reminders for this next round of reporting:

1. Your chosen reporting weeks must be fully contained within Q2, (April 1 – June 30).

2. In addition to playlist and streaming log data, please be sure to fill out or update the guide for each of your content streams in Composer Basic or Pro so that we may integrate playlists for syndicated shows that you stream. The full list of syndicated shows for which we’re gathering playlists (which continues to grow) is here. If you produce a syndicated program and are not yet providing us with playlists, please review this page on what data we need from you and how to get it to us.

3. When submitting data to us, make sure to specify the start dates of your two chosen reporting weeks using Composer Basic/Pro (unless you are one of the lucky few that have to do full quarter reporting).

Oh yeah, and one more thing: AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR DATA PLEASE CONTACT ME to let me know that you have and to double check that we have what we need!!!!! We’re still tweaking the reporting system on our end to ensure no data falls through the cracks, but there are still some holes. Don’t assume that no news is good news!

Onward!