By John Eggerton, Multichannel News, 1-15-21

The Justice Department said there needs to be further review of two music licensing consent decrees that allow music users to secure a blanket license for rights rather than having to negotiate individually for them.

That is according to Justice Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim in remarks at a Vanderbilt University Law School virtual event, “The Music Industry and Antitrust Law.” He said there remain issues that still need to be worked out.

Those include whether performance rights organizations (PROs) should be able to expand the rights they license, and the key issues of fractional vs. full performance licensing and partial withdrawal of rights, the latter which particularly implicates streaming rights since that would allow music performers and publishers to provide blanket licenses for bars or TV shows, but negotiate individually with online streaming services.  » Read More