Music publishers and U.S. commercial radio station owners said Monday they had agreed to a new $1.7 billion deal to cover licensing rights for music played over radio airwaves or via radio station Web sites.
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), representing over 190,000 members, and the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), representing most of the nearly 12,000 U.S. commercial radio stations, said it was the largest single licensing deal in the history of American radio.
The settlement, which was approved by U.S. District Court Judge William Conner in New York on Oct. 15, provides stations with the right to perform ASCAP music over the air and as part of a simultaneous stream on radio Web sites, the parties said.
ASCAP's repertory, the largest in the world, contains more than 7.5 million copyrighted musical works, in addition to works in the repertories of over 60 affiliated foreign performing rights organizations.
The agreement finalizes license fees for the period 2001-2003 and establishes new ASCAP licenses for the period 2004-2009. It also streamlines the process for administering license fees, they said.