|Policy
For the last several years, the music business has been unified over one thing: SiriusXM and other digital-radio services must pay royalties for recordings made before 1972.
Nearly all spins of pre-1972 recordings receive royalties from Pandora. But the just-introduced CLASSICS Act would provide equality for all recordings at all music services.
Although it hasn’t even been a full week since Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was confirmed as attorney general, the special interests in the music industry are already trying to play head games with the new head of the Justice Department.
New York already passed legislation banning the use of ticket buying bots, but President Obama has just made the ban a nationwide law. Today, the president signed the “Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016” which makes it illegal to use software to purchase tickets to popular events.
“We believe in a music economy that works for everyone — artists and fans, music venues and promoters — and we applaud passage of the BOTS Act as an excellent first step in stopping the insidious practice of ticket bots depriving consumers of fair access to tickets,” said Katie Peters, director of government relations for…
The House gave final approval Wednesday night to legislation that would bar scalpers from using computer-hacking software, or so-called bots, to instantly buy up large swaths of tickets for live events. The bill is now awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature.
Ticketfly, an online ticket distribution company bought by Pandora last year, “strongly supports” the legislation “in order to increase fairness in the ticket-purchasing industry,” Katie Peters, Pandora’s director of government relations, said in a statement Wednesday.
Pandora CEO, Tim Westergren talks about how Pandora is gearing up to compete with Apple and Spotify in the competitive music streaming business. Tim describes how his company is taking more of a collaborative approach in Washington.
A Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee held a hearing on “ticket bot” software, which allows scalpers to purchase tickets in bulk for resale at a higher price to consumers. Officials from the sports, theater and online ticket sales industries testified about what they thought could be done to combat ticket bots, as well as…
Pandora’s Associate General Counsel, Jeremy Leigl submitted testimony in support of the “BOTS Act,” which prohibits the misuse of bots to undermine the security mechanisms and terms of service that ticketing platforms put in place.