composition

Pandora has filed suit against ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in New York federal court, hoping to force the organization to grant it a "blanket" licensing fee for all of ASCAP's works.

The suit follows more than a year of negotiations in which the two sides were unable to settle.

Pandora is one of several webcasters, broadcasters, and technology groups supporting the Internet Radio Fairness Act in Congress, legislation advocates hope will lead to a reduction in the fees webcasters pay for the use of copyright sound recordings.

The fees webcasters like Pandora pay to ASCAP (and similar groups BMI and SESAC), on the other hand, involve copyright song compositions. The benefactors of such royalties are songwriters and publishers.

Pandora reportedly wants -- and ASCAP refuses -- the same terms as broadcasters. Earlier this year ASCAP reached a deal with the Radio Music Licensing Committee, which represents large broadcasters. The deal has radio broadcasters paying 1.7% of their gross revenue, minus deductions based on advertising commissions.

ASCAP and Pandora reached what was called an "experimental" accord on composition fees for the 2005-2010 term. Pandora's suit is for the term ending 2015.

Relatedly, Sony/ATV, a publisher with huge rights holdings, is pulling out of ASCAP to administer its own digital royalties (more here). This adds to webcasters' complications, as the group would be yet another organization with which to negotiate yet another fee. Though such a move should presumably reduce ASCAP fees, it's not known what it would mean for the overall amount webcasters pay to use copyright song compositions.

Read more in Bloomberg here.

Billboard, as part of an article on Apple negotiations for a webcast service, sheds more light on music publisher Sony/ATV's announcement to pull out of ASCAP and BMI (we covered this in RAIN here).

[Note: this story regards digital music services' use of the composition right of a song; not the copyright sound recording.]

Digital services (new ones immediately, others when current deals expire) will have to negotiate with Sony/ATV (which now also owns EMI Music Publishing) and will no longer be able to rely on the "compulsory" license to use compositions and simply pay ASCAP or BMI the going rate.

Sony/ATV (and EMI) represents hundreds of thousands of songs.

"'All we are seeking is a fair and reasonable royalty for the writers and ourselves for digital performances,' Sony/ATV chairman/CEO Martin Bandier told Billboard.biz. 'We think the songwriter is just as important as the master recording and should get a fair price.'"

The "master recording" is the sound recording, for which webcasters pay a far higher percentage of their revenue than other forms of radio, and (for now) for other royalties.

Billboard reports Sony/ATV is pulling its digital performance rights, including EMI, from BMI and ASCAP on January 1, 2013. Apparently, Sony/ATV is not pulling its digital rights from SESAC, which is not under the "government consent decree" and "sometimes has greater flexibility in rate negotiations than BMI or ASCAP."

Read Billboard.biz here.