Music Publishing Roundup 1.13.15: Grammy Creative Alliance, BMI vs Pandora, Rapidshare & More

[Updated] Recording Academy president Neil Portnow launched The Creative Alliance with help from Ryan Tedder and Jennifer Hudson live Monday night during his annual speech at the Grammy’s. With founding members including Steven Tyler, Dr. Luke, and Ryan Tedder, The Creative Alliance will actively lobby for fair royalty rates in the modern age. Highlights of the speech included Neil Protnow’s gloom prediction of a future with no “Best New Artist” category due to new artists not being able to make a living off their craft, Ryan Tedder’s references to Taylor Swift relinquishing her music from Spotify, and The Turtles court case with SiriusXM over Pre-1972 recordings.

The BMI vs. Pandora rate court trial began Wednesday, February 11th at a Federal Court in New York’s Southern District. The objective for BMI in this trial is to increase current rate or 1.75% of revenue from the streaming giant to 2.5%. Scott Edelman, BMI’s lawyer argues the current rate is the result of an experimental license from 2005. At the time of initially signing, Pandora’s total revenue was only $19.3 million and digital music was only available in laptops. The trial is expected to continue for the next three weeks.

Rapidshare has announced its closure, following legal and cultural issues over the last 13 years in business. The music piracy site similar to MegaUpload and Vuze based their business off of torrents and shared files. The company’s failure represents a shift in the music landscape away from this format to the legal streaming model.