GMR, RMLC Continue To Tussle In Court

Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights (GMR) has gone on the offensive once more against the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC).

Digital Music News reports  Azoff and GMR accuse the RMLC of paying too little in royalties.  The RMLC, in turn, accuses Azoff and GMR of bullying major radio broadcasters into paying higher performance fees.  Global Music Rights, argues the licensing committee, has leveraged its catalog of high-powered hits to force the higher radio rates.

The radio group negotiates licensing fees for around 10,000 radio stations across the U.S. about 90% of the market.

GMR has accused the RMLC of operating an “illegal cartel.”  The RMLC alleges GMR has engaged in “deliberate witness intimidation.”

In separate filings last Thursday, both groups continued to trade barbs.

According to Azoff’s Global Music Rights, the Radio Music License Committee willfully coordinated a boycott against the performance rights organization (PRO).  This, says the PRO, comes as the RMLC’s filing shows it targets “competitive entry into a previously oligopolistic market.”

The previous ‘rulers’ of the market, says GMR, include Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).

Defending itself against GMR’s claims, the RMLC countered that GMR has no right to sue.  In fact, throughout the lengthy royalties legal battle, Azoff’s PRO has refused arbitration.  Both BMI and ASCAP largely negotiate licenses based on a decree signed with the U.S. Department of Justice in the early 1940s.  If rates disputes arise, then under the decrees, they are then settled by a panel of rate court judges.