NPR Quits MIC Coalition

A US-based lobbying group co-founded by Google and Pandora that aims to drive down royalties paid to songwriters and artists has suffered another high-profile member exit.

According to Music Business Worldwide, pressure has been building on public US broadcaster NPR ever since Amazon quit the MIC Coalition in June.

At the time, Amazon’s VP of digital music, Steve Boom said: “When we joined the coalition we had a particular agenda topic that we were interested in, and that was transparency.

“What has become clear to us since MIC went public is that part of the agenda – transparency – is getting lost in the wilder noise surrounding rate-setting.”

It appears that NPR has woken up to this idea, despite MIC’s claim to be fighting laws that “stifle innovation to the detriment of consumers and artists”.

Two pressure groups opposed to the MIC Coalition – The Content Creators Coalition and musicFIRST – have both welcomed NPR’s decision.

MusicFIRST Coalition Executive Director Ted Kalo said: “When Amazon took the lead and left this anti-artist Coalition, after concluding the group was ‘consumed’ with lowering payments to musicians, musicFIRST called on NPR to leave as well, arguing that their association with them went against their strong record as both a partner to artists and a supporter of great music."

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