Think of all the great music recorded before 1972. It includes some of the most legendary artists ever from The Beatles to Jimi Hendrix. A lot of that music has been trapped in the world of pre-1972 recordings, which is a segment of copyright law that allowed Pandora to skirt payment to rights holders for years, until this week when a settlement was reached with the company to pay labels $90 million.
Copyright law can be a messy field, but the main thing to know in this case is that music recorded before 1972 is not protected by the federal Copyright Act. Instead, all that music we love is protected by a hodgepodge of state laws and court cases.
This gave Pandora grounds to simply not seek deals for the music because the Internet allowed the company to play music to a national audience not governed by a single state entity.
The Pandora case as well as the Sirius XM case, which resolved for $210 million earlier this year, asks the larger question of whether or not modern compulsory licenses, applied to satellite and Internet music streaming, also apply to the pre-1972 works. With these two cases now settled, it would seem that the answer is yes.
As part of the deal, Pandora will still have to strike a deal with the record labels by the end of 2016 to obtain the proper licenses to play pre-1972 music on its service.
"Major settlements with SiriusXM and now Pandora means that an iconic generation of artists and the labels that supported them will be paid for the use of their creative works," said Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman & CEO Cary Sherman in a statement. "That is a significant milestone and a big win for the music community. We appreciate the collaborative and constructive approach of Pandora's team in resolving this longstanding issue for artists and labels."
Listen to some of the best songs of 1972 below.
