Tis the season. The world is about to change. Today America elects a new president. Whether McCain or Obama win, The Us will change. Which means the world will change.

The music world is about to change as well. That change will come from America too.

The background: The big news of 2008 as regards the music industry was the setting of a 9.1 cent publishing royalty rate for downloads and physical products (like CDs) by the CRB – the Copyright Royalty Board. This actually was no change at all – that’s been the rate since 2006 and was supposed to increase every two years and has historically for the past 20 years. Ringtone rate: 24 cents (that’s new). There’s more but these rates aren’t really the point of this article. The record companies were unhappy that the rate wasn’t decreased and the publishers were displeased that the rate wasn’t increased.

Rates were set for recording artist royalties by the CRB previously. Those performance royalties are collected by Sound Exchange just as publishing performance royalties are collected by ASCAP and BMI in the US and PRS in the UK. Sound Exchange was set up and authorised by the CRB as a not for profit organization.

The real news: A company in the US, Royalty Logic, tried to set up in competition with Sound Exchange to collect performance royalties for the artists/labels. There were many court cases lasting many years and the new company lost. So the lawyer for the new company, Ken Freundlich, is bringing another case. To have the CRB itself disbanded because it was set up unconstitutionally and so was Sound Exchange.

Checks and balances: The US Federal government has 3 branches – judicial (courts), executive (President and other executive offices) and legislative (Senate and Congress). They each have powers of their own and a power over the other to make sure none can be corrupt (theoretically). Legislative makes the laws, the President can veto the laws and the executives appoint the judges, the judges make sure everything is legal and changes it if it isn’t.

The legal bit:  The CRB was set up by Congress, the legislative branch of the US government. The CRB decisions are made by judges appointed by Congress to the CRB. Only the Executive Branch of the US government can appoint judges (the Judicial branch).

Ta da!: Ken is going to the Supreme Court to have it all undone and changed.

Conclusion: Our world is going to change.