Global Citizens Assignment – Draft

Drafts are due by September 11.

Late submissions are not allowed, so please turn in your draft BEFORE the due date to be sure your draft will be reviewed.

Drafts will be reviewed and returned with comments on September 21

Final Papers are due September 30

In recent years, online music streaming services have arrived and started to take over purchasing hard copies of CDs. In light of this we will look at the way artists are paid via music streaming services and music downloads. As it stands now, the payout for a single music download is $.091 cents per song (with $01.75 cents per minute for songs over 5 minutes). The payout for streaming music varies across countries and streaming services, so for the purposes of this discussion we will focus on the online service SPOTIFY.

Assigned Readings:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6561031/what-do-spotify-streaming-services-pay-around-the-world (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

and

http://work.chron.com/much-money-paid-songwriter-performance-royalties-23011.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

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Assignments:

Based on your research and discussion activities this week on File Sharing and Artists Royalties and Compensation for Online Music sales, propose a new law covering Global Internet sales (a hypothetical international law) which will help protect artist rights and ability to be compensated for creative works. Your new “law” needs to address these issues: 1. Artists Royalties and Compensation for Music Downloads and Streaming, both for performance and composition, 2. File Sharing law.

Present a short defense of your position on each issue and how the law supports artists rights (or not). Assume you are not bound by existing US or International regulations, but take into consideration the differences in US and European compensation and protection policies as they exist today. This “law” should be well written in a simple, easy to read form (no “legalese” needed) and should be short and to the point. You need to cite any materials you use from your research.

Rubric:

You will be graded on the inclusion of all of these issues in your “law”, as well as on the thoughtfulness of your research informed defense of your position.

1. How artists royalties are determined for performers (Named artist on recording, other musicians on recordings) and composers and arrangers:

• Percentage of sales for each (named artist, musicians, composer, arranger)
• streams
• downloads
• 2-File Sharing from:

• public sites
• private sharing.
• 3.Defend your choices, based on your research and discussion of this topic this week, describing how this law is fair to all parties – artists, online Music distributors and/or record companies, as well as consumers. References to existing law or other research should be included.