BMG says that it is speeding up payments to more than 20,000 US and UK songwriters on old contracts.<\/p>\n
The company says the move is “part of [our] program to ensure established clients are not left behind by changes in the industry”. It will see songwriters paid within 60 days of the close of a royalty period rather than the 90 days specified in their contracts.<\/p>\n
According to BMG, distributions\u202fwill now occur a month earlier than previously on February 28\u202fand August 31\u202fof each year.<\/p>\n
BMG says that the majority of its publishing clients, mainly those on newer contracts, are already on 60 day terms.<\/p>\n
This change extends the benefit to most of BMG’s remaining clients, mainly those who signed contracts subsequently acquired by BMG with companies including Chrysalis and Cherry Lane.<\/p>\n
The move was driven by Eric Scott, SVP Rights Administration & Royalty Services US and Aidan Kenny, SVP Royalty Services & Income Tracking UK, says BMG.<\/p>\n
BMG says that the move forms part of a “program to modernize industry practices”, which has seen BMG abandon packaging deductions on digital formats (benefiting recording artists) and removing the controlled composition clauses<\/a> from its contracts (which benefits songwriters).<\/p>\n Prospectively, BMG’s pledge to pay songwriters faster won’t just benefit songwriters, either \u2013 but also those song rightsholders who’ve acquired catalogs and rely on BMG as a service provider.<\/p>\n For one, it will likely be music to the ears of the company’s new financial partner KKR, with whom BMG signed a deal<\/a> last month to jointly buy music copyrights.<\/p>\n