Recording - April 2016 - 52

Continued from page 51
You know, Hans Zimmer. How many people
does Hans Zimmer have working for him writing songs? I mean, he comes up with the main
theme, and he's got other guys working on the
details. And that's just how this world really
works.
John: Just a legal point. There is no such thing
as writer's share/publisher's share, just as a
note.
Jeff: Clarify.
John: Well, there's nothing in copyright law.
It's a business convention that has evolved over
years and years and years. So if you write a
song yourself, you own 100% of that copyright.
And the idea then is if you do it, you enter into
a contract and with a publishing company-

"There is one Led Zeppelin catalog on
iTunes, and it's from Atlantic Records
and everybody knows it, and Apple
does not have this problem [figuring
out who owns the rights]. The alleged
complexity over rights is a manufactured problem, because iTunes
doesn't have this problem."
-Brian McNelis
and that could be your own publishing
company and you're doing an assignment at
that point of that copyright. And I think all of
this is going to evolve. I don't want to get into
too much of a futurist mode, but I can see a
place pretty soon where we're not going to have
mechanical performances, synchronization and
all these other things. We're gonna have a
license, this is the amount you're paying me,
and that's going to involve all these relationships-whether that's straight with the ISP or
that's with YouTube. I mean, it's ridiculous on
some level that the deal with YouTube is you
pay this license fee to publisher or the writer,
and then a carve out of that goes to the performance society in that agreement, but there is
no synchronization grant, but you agree that
you won't sue for synchronization. So if I kind
of do the logic on that, so no synchronization
exists-this is just a license...
Brian: I love what I'm hearing from you. It's
really refreshing and awesome. I love this idea
- just to kind of expand on some of the things
I said earlier in response to your point. You
know, I believe in markets. The reason why an
52

aspiring composer writes 80% of a score for a
TV show and gets 10% of the writer's share is
because that's a market dynamic. There is an
exchange of values that's happening there
where everyone is a willing participant. I
believe in markets; I believe in a willing buyer; I
believe in a willing seller; I believe in the negotiation. I believe that I can ask for a price, and I
believe that you can either pay for it or not pay
for it. What I don't believe in is that I can set a
price and you can take and do what you want
with it, and then come back to me and say, "It's
only worth this." And that's exactly the world
we're living in. What I love hearing on the stage
is there is no real technological impediment to
fixing the problems that we have. The
problems that we have are the result of political will. I want to make this really clear-you
are that political will. It's you [people in the
audience], it's nobody else. It's your life, your
money, you are that political will. What I'd love
to see is... You said something that I never
really thought about before, which is; what if
there was an option on YouTube that said, "I
choose to license this, synchronize, or I choose
not to. And if I choose to synchronize it, this is
what you have to pay me. And there's a little
box, you go, "Yes, I choose to synchronize it
and I want $5...or I want $100...or I want
$500,000, because I'm just crazy that way." And
then the other side says, "Well, no, I'm not
going to pay you $5 or $500,000." Or maybe I
just check it and I say, "No, I'm not going to
grant you a license."
John: So the great thing is that technology
exists.
Brian: I believe it does.
John: ...and it solves a problem. It's called
"RADkeyTM." It was developed by Rumblefish,
and if you go into the CMS side in YouTube,
you will now see a little thing in there-and
right now it's a blunt-force tool-that if you
put your license number in there... So that premarket transaction happened over here, and
that license then goes in. It automatically happens if you publish through certain technology
in, and that task happens.
Brian: And I love the idea if you say no... This
is our biggest problem-we don't have the ability to opt-out and say no. If I want to pass on
an opportunity because it doesn't make sense
for me, then it should create an opportunity for
somebody else for whom it does make sense. So
if my music is playing in the background of a
YouTube video and I go, "Nope, I don't want it
there," they flag it, they mute it and it goes
through an open-market cascade waterfall of
automated algorithmic bidding system where
somebody gets that opportunity, and they get
paid for it what they agreed to get paid for it-
not less, not more. And that's really what's

missing from the entire conversation is the
ability to put us back into a true market where
we have a willing buyer, a willing seller, the
ability to negotiate and get compensation for
that consumption. It's not rocket science; this
is how the world worked prior to 1999...mostly.
John: It happens on ads now. Every one of
those little ads you see on any website page, or
wherever you go, that's what's happening. So
how can it not work for us, right? It's like
ridiculous.
Brian: Dude...high five! So they figured out the
very mechanism to make sure that you can be
fairly compensated when it comes to their business, which is slathering the Internet and
advertising, against giving away your content
for free. But they haven't figured out how to
use the exact same technology to empower you
into that market where you can get paid.
John: I'm gonna get a little kumbaya with
Brian for a second. He's got me fired up,
because I basically kind of live elements of this
every single day with a bunch of different technology companies. But I will tell you, it may
not necessarily feel like it, but keep it going.
Your voices are actually being heard.
Brian: The last thing I'm going to say on that
is, you know, people often say with YouTube
there's all this content being uploaded. They
get 48 hours of video every second or ever
minute, it's impossible, blah, blah, blah. You
know, it's interesting that iTunes doesn't have
any of these DMCA issues. "Kelly 129" has not
uploaded the Led Zeppelin catalog via
TuneCore or CD Baby to iTunes. There is one
Led Zeppelin catalog on iTunes, and it's from

"I would never take somebody's
writer share. To me, I don't think
that's the right thing to do. I know
some companies that do that as well.
But if you are trying to become a composer for a TV show or film, the
chances are you'll probably have a
work-for-hire deal where maybe
you're working under another composer, and you might be doing 80% of
the work, but you might only get 10%
of the writer's share."
-Jeff Freundlich
Atlantic Records and everybody knows it, and
Apple does not have this problem. The alleged
complexity over rights is a manufactured probContinued on page 54

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