LON Special Report: June 30, 2016-The Day The Music Died? Ep.2 The DOJ v. Joe Songwriter with Bart Herbison of NSAI

In this episode, we hear from Bart Herbison, the Executive Director of Nashville Songwriters Association International or (NSAI). NSAI is a not-for-profit trade organization for songwriters with chapters all over the world.   Bart talks about the recent DOJ ruling concerning PROs and what this will mean for the music industry.   I start by asking Bart about the 100% licensing ruling and what spawned it.   It’s quite obvious who this ruling hurts, but I wanted to know who it helps. Logic would dictate that this has to help someone. There is talk that Google has the most to gain by this ruling, (we intend to address this in a future episode) but Bart has a different take on the matter.   So why make this ruling now? This seemingly caught everyone by surprise, so what was the rationale of adding this ruling on top of refusing to update the consent decrees?   The official written ruling was made on August 4th, a week after this interview. I asked Bart what was next on the agenda to fight it.   What’s mind boggling to everyone I’ve spoken to is what was the logic in this 100% licensing ruling that essentially transfers the burden of distributing royalty money from the PROs to the songwriters.   Being two hours away from Nashville, I was curious as to the feeling of songwriters on the ground in and around Music Row after this ruling.   As mentioned earlier, the official ruling came down on August 4th.  NSAI Board President Lee Thomas Miller immediately issued a scathing statement to the DOJ.    BMI and ASCAP also released statements explaining they were joining forces to fight this ruling, with BMI challenging the ruling in Federal Court, while ASCAP is leading the charge with legislative reform.     But now is not the time to take our foot off the gas. As songwriters we need to support this effort and make our voices heard.   As I mentioned last episode, I can’t stress how important it is that you share this podcast series and leave a review in iTunes. Reviews affect the search engine algorithm immensely. The more reviews that we get, the more people can find the show.   So in the immortal words of Karen Carpenter, “We’ve only just begun."   NSAI Board President Lee Thomas Miller's Response To Ruling   ASCAP and BMI Join Forces To Fight DOJ Ruling   US Copyright Office Director Maria Pallante     Music in this episode: Brandon Barnett-Man Who Tries