A new lawsuit has targeted Google, Rdio, Sony, and Apple (including Beats) over the music royalties associated with pre-1972 recordings, according to The Recorder. Zenbu Magazines, which owns copyrights on many pre-1972 songs, says that the companies have been making money streaming recordings without paying their owners. Within US copyright law, compositions have been protected since 1831, but sound recordings were only added in 1972, meaning that while owners of pre-1972 compositions have been paid for public performances, people holding equally-aged recording rights typically haven’t.
In 2014, a Los Angeles judge extended ownership rights for pre-1972 recordings to include public performances. A similar decision was reached that year in a lawsuit against Sirius XM, brought by members of the 1960s band The Turtles.
Both of those rulings and the new case could have serious ramifications in the streaming music world. Services like Rdio and iTunes could potentially drop pre-1972 music if they decide the income isn’t worth the royalties owed. That, though, might cause a backlash, since it would exclude large swaths of music by artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Zenbu is seeking class action status on behalf of “all owners of recordings made before February 15, 1972, whose recordings appear on streaming services.”
