Today’s Congressional Music Licensing Hearing Could Get Interesting [WATCH]

Watch the live video stream today starting today at 10AM ET here.

Most Congressional hearings are like watching paint dry, and the recent US House Judiciary Committee hearing on music licensing was no exception. Predictable industry players advocated for predictable positions. Today's hearings, which will be streamed live starting at 10AM Eastern, could be more interesting.

Alongside the usual executives from the RIAA, the National Association of Broadcasters and other old-school trade groups, will come testimony from SoundExchange CEO Michael Huppe, an outspoken critic of the current system and the smart and often blunt singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash.  

Most interesting could be Darius Van Arman (pictured above), the Co-Founder of the Secretly Canadian indie music label group who is testifying on behalf of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).

"The market concentration issues that our industry is facing right now are a product of a basic, systemic problem," Van Arman wrote in a recent Billboard op-ed. The current copyright system provides incentives for the wrong behavior (such as maximizing breakage). Large publicly traded companies, whose only fealty is to making profits for its shareholders in the short-term, are acting rationally when they take advantage of whatever inefficiencies exist in the marketplace. 

Watch the live video stream today here.

Witnesses & PDFs of their advance testimony:

• Ms. Rosanne Cash
  Singer, Songwriter, Author and Performer
  On Behalf of the Americana Music Association (AMA)
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony AMA.pdf (82.2 KBs)
• Mr. Cary Sherman
  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
  Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony RIAA.pdf (354.2 KBs)
• Mr. Charles M. Warfield Jr.
  Senior Advisor, YMF Media, LLC
  On Behalf of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony NAB.pdf (43.8 KBs)
• Mr. Darius Van Arman
  Co-Founder, Secretly Group
  On Behalf of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM)
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony A2IM.pdf (333.5 KBs)
• Mr. Ed Christian
  Chairman
  Radio Music License Committee Inc. (RMLC)
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony RMLC.pdf (431.0 KBs)
• Mr. Paul Williams
  President and Chairman of the Board
  American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony ASCAP.pdf (151.1 KBs)
• Mr. Chris Harrison
  Vice President, Business Affairs
  Pandora Media Inc.
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony Pandora.pdf (592.0 KBs)
• Mr. Michael Huppe
  President and Chief Executive Officer
  SoundExchange Inc.
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony SX.PDF (609.0 KBs)
• Mr. David J. Frear
  Chief Financial Officer
  Sirius XM Holdings Inc.
  062514 Music License Pt 2 Testimony Sirius XM.pdf (254.2 KBs)

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