• Prior to 1995, SRCOs in the United States did not have a performance right. This meant that, unlike their counterparts in most of Europe and other nations around the world, recording companies and artists were not entitled to receive payment for the public performance of their works. Users of music, the digital music service providers, freely performed these works at will, without paying the owners of those recordings or the featured artists who performed the songs.
• The Digital Performance in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 changed that practice by granting a performance right in sound recordings. As a result, copyright law now requires that users of music pay the copyright owner of the sound recording for the public performance of that music via certain digital transmissions.
• SoundExchange was created in 2000 as an unincorporated division of the RIAA. In September 2003, SoundExchange was spun off as an independent and non-profit organization.[1] Beginning on January 1, 2003, SoundExchange became the only collective designated by the Copyright Office to distribute statutory royalties to copyright owners and performers entitled under 17 U.S.C. 5 114(g)(2).[2]

The decision by the Library of Congress, as well as the signing of the SWSA, extends the requirement for logging and reporting of performance information. However, this can be a lot easier and faster than you think. With our relational SQL database included in Backbone Radio Pro, this information is automatically logged for easy reporting...everything from the recording information to data regarding the number and locations of listeners for each performance. As in the past, these requirements are subject to change, and you are prepared with all the information the government is likely to require.