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18 Rev. Econ. Rsch. on Copyright Issues 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/rvwoecrh18 and id is 1 raw text is: Review of Economic Research on Copyright Issues, 2021, vol. 18, pp. 1-25 MUSIC LICENSING FOR NON-INTERACTIVE AND OTHER RADIO-STYLE SERVICES: IS IT FINALLY TIME TO MOVE AWAY FROM BLANKET LICENSING? JACOB B. EBIN AND DAVID REITMAN ABSTRACT. Advances in technology over the last two decades have led to significant changes in the way that music is consumed, with music streaming services now being the dominant means through which people listen to music and the primary means through which music copyright own- ers monetize their intellectual property. The way that music rights are licensed by these digital streaming services, however, has not meaningfully changed. Blanket or collective licensing is still the norm and the marketplace is almost entirely devoid of any actual price competition between rightsholders to have their music performed. But some of the same technological advancements that have allowed digital streaming to emerge also can be used to transform the way that music is licensed - moving towards a more competitive alternative. In this paper we review the economic tradeoffs that have provided the primary justifications for the current blanket licensing systems, and then describe the institutions and regulatory environment that have developed to implement those systems in the U.S. That sets the stage to describe an alternative competitive marketplace taking advantage of streaming technology and data, which we do in our companion paper, Ebin and Reitman (forthcoming). Such a marketplace, if implemented appropriately, would allow for individual rightsholders to set their own prices subject to the forces of competition, while still maintaining many of the transactions costs efficiencies associated with blanket licensing. 1. INTRODUCTION Over the last two decades, music consumption patterns have changed significantly, driven in large part by advances in technology. This technological progress has led, among other things, to the rapid rise of digital streaming services, which have become the dom- inant way that people listen to music. Along with this change in music consumption patterns, there has been a shift in how music copyright holders are compensated for the use of their intellectual property, with the royalties paid by digital streaming services accounting for a larger and larger portion of overall royalty payments. Copyright law protections have expanded to include the use of music on digital streaming platforms, but the methods for licensing music and the approach for compensating rightsholders retains The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent or reflect the views of Mayer Brown or CRA. We thank Andrea Asoni for helpful comments and Joe Lembo for excellent research assistance.

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