AFM International President Ray Hair responded to the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) decision setting rates for 2018 through 2022 for Sirius XM’s satellite radio service and the cable/satellite TV music services provided by Music Choice and Muzak. The CRB increased rates from 11% of revenue to 15.5% of revenue, effective January 1, 2018. Sirius XM is the only satellite radio service in the United States and reported revenues of $5 billion in 2016. The CRB reduced the rates for Music Choice’s and Muzak’s services from 8.5% to 7.5% of revenue.

“While we welcome the rate increase for SiriusXM, our broken copyright system still allows this wildly profitable company to underpay for recorded music based on a below-market standard. It is time and past time to fix this broken system so that musicians can get fair value for their work across the board. Every music service (including radio) should pay, all rates should be based on fair market value rather than requiring artists to subsidize businesses, and music services should be required to pay for the use of legacy as well as contemporary recordings.”