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Global Music Rights sues Vermont Broadcast Associates

D

DavidZ

Lyndonville based Vermont Broadcast Associates own 7 Radio Stations across Northern Vermont, New Hampshire and Quebec.

radioinsight.com

Global Music Rights Sues Vermont Broadcast Associates Over Performance License Infringement - RadioInsight

Global Music Rights has announced it has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Lyndonville VT based Vermont Broadcast Associates for "the station group’s repeated and willful infringement of copyrighted songs licensed by GMR". The Bruce James led company owns seven stations in...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com
 
I don't know anything about the specifics of this lawsuit. However, GMR does things differently than other music rights organizations. From its inception, GMR wanted to run its licensing business itself, internally, rather than be part of the blanket license negotiated by the Radio Music License Committee. The RMLC, as its called, handles licenses for BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. But rather than join RMLC, GMR chose to sue them, claiming they were a cartel. That whole situation made music licensing more confusing and more complicated for the radio stations. Most of the songs in the GMR catalogue were previously licensed by one of the three other PROs. So its possible that this radio group wondered why they were being asked to pay for songs it had played for years. It will be interesting to see if VBA is part of the RMLC.

The bad news about all of this is that ignorance is not a defense, and judges tend to favor rights holders in these kinds of lawsuits. What that means is that if you own a radio station that plays music, be sure you're paying all of the PROs for the music.
 
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Yes, BigA, that VTDigger article indicates that VBA is part of the RMLC.

These stations serve the poorest corner of Vermont. I'd imagine there's not much ad revenue there and VBA would be put in a precarious financial position if it has to pay the full amount for each song. The article, unfortunately, doesn't mention how many songs, or even how many of VBA's stations have been playing them.
 
CTListener said:
Yes, BigA, that VTDigger article indicates that VBA is part of the RMLC.
Click to expand...

And they didn't sign on to the GMR part of the deal:

In the wake of that lawsuit, GMR offered long-term licensing based on agreed-upon terms to all radio stations represented by the Radio Music Licensing Committee, the “vast majority” of which accepted, according to the press release. Vermont Broadcast Associates, whose stations are a part of the Radio Music Licensing Committee, according to the release, did not.
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This looks pretty bad for VBA. They were given a chance to sign, and ignored it. Then played the music anyway.
CTListener said:
The article, unfortunately, doesn't mention how many songs, or even how many of VBA's stations have been playing them.
Click to expand...
The first paragraph says two stations played 66 songs 1600 times. I'm sure the actual lawsuit lists the song titles and the specific stations. Mediabase tracks the songs every station plays. So GMR has very detailed information about what was played when.
 
TheBigA said:
Here are the details of how RMLC members could opt in to the GMR license from two years ago:

www.broadcastlawblog.com

GMR and RMLC Announce Confidential Settlement on Music Royalties for Commercial Radio Stations – Broadcasters Must Decide Whether to Opt In by January 31

A conditional settlement of the long-running litigation between Global Music Rights (GMR), a relatively new performing rights organization formed to
www.broadcastlawblog.com

So the station group had two years to sign on to this agreement.
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Did the RMLC give its members any sort of heads-up about Azoff's power grab other than the opt-in offer, or were they left to deal with GMR's scary letters on their own and decide for themselves whether RMLC membership protected them from other entities claiming broadcast rights to the same songs they'd been paying RMLC for?

Again, you're right in that ignorance is no defense in court, and surely someone at VBA could have asked the right questions over two years, but could VBA have a case against RMLC for failure to explain how serious noncompliance with the Azoff group could be?
 
CTListener said:
Did the RMLC give its members any sort of heads-up about Azoff's power grab other than the opt-in offer,
Click to expand...

Yes. Prior to the 2022 agreement, they told all members to either sign separate agreements with GMR, or not play those songs.

But this lawsuit primarily deals with the failure to sign on to the 2022 agreement, and then continue to play GMR songs.
 
TheBigA said:
Mediabase tracks the songs every station plays. So GMR has very detailed information about what was played when.
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Not from around here are ya? Mediabase? In northeast Vermont? Yeah, right.
I do wonder how they managed to prove this though. Not sure if any of those stations stream.
 
Oldbones said:
Not from around here are ya? Mediabase? In northeast Vermont? Yeah, right.
I do wonder how they managed to prove this though. Not sure if any of those stations stream.
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Stations schedule music by computer. Then that info is posted on their websites. Then there are tracking sites that follow and save all the airplay information. Even in rural Vermont.
 
TheBigA said:
Stations schedule music by computer. Then that info is posted on their websites. Then there are tracking sites that follow and save all the airplay information. Even in rural Vermont.
Click to expand...
Please don't talk down to me like I'm some idiot. Most of the stations up that way are rather shoestring operations, and don't likely have fancy websites with "now playing" info.
 
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