The Daily Journal interviewed Manatt's Robert Jacobs, co-chair of the firm's Entertainment and Media Litigation practice, for an article on the Copyright Royalty Board's pending decision that will determine how much music is worth in the digital age.
The Daily Journal reports that the CRB is expected to announce its decision on the amount that music streaming services, such as Pandora, will have to pay in royalties. The determination of royalty rates for digital performance in sound recordings and ephemeral recordings will apply to non-interactive streaming and Internet radio services from 2016-2020.
Jacobs said he doesn't expect to see a dramatic jump in Pandora's rates, currently at $0.0014 per play, but he does think that the CRB will make an effort to level the playing field.
"I do think that they're probably going to get pushed upward to be a little more in line with what others pay," he said.
Overall, Jacobs said he doesn't expect any of the CRB's decisions to be extreme one way or the other.
"I think the best case scenario is an uptick in rates that puts more money in content creators' pockets and isn't so significant that it puts the Pandoras of the world out of business, which is a balance I think most people are hoping to see," Jacobs said.