I hope they do not pass the legislation proposed... I am tired of tech companies stealing creative works to feed their creations which have only devalued music every step of the way. It's outrageous. Creators continue to be stolen from with little power to fight for control and access to their own work. This is simply the big and powerful stealing and doing what they want with other people's property. All compulsory licenses are evil full stop. No one should EVER be forced to accept a govt bought and paid for price on their own works. They artificially set low prices AND treat ALL music as if it has the same value which it does not. The result is new writers/artists are priced out of airplay and usage (i.e. their product is overpriced in the market when compared to the best stuff, and the best stuff is HORRIBLY underpriced... plus creators have no right to say no. It's like a person being forced to sell their body to anyone will to pay a set price regardless of any other factors including simply that you may not want a particular scumbag to sell you and profit from the use of your body... in my view it is that disgusting... it's artistic rape and 100% mandated slave labor. It is the opposite of free market and is pure evil in my opinion.

Well said, Brian:

I agree with you.

----Dave

If anyone is at fault with this lawsuit, it would be the distributors who distribute the music.

As for the music modernization act: Its not looking to change the rate of a mechanical license, its looking to make a common database so that the NOIs that get sent, no longer need to be sent. Instead all compulsory licensed music would be in the database - where the end user could then look themselves up.

I don't know about you, but that makes way more sense to me. It would stop part-time musicians from getting all bent out of shape about their music being "stolen" when in reality, they don't understand the ins and outs of distribution; especially as it pertains to NOIs.

This is a distribution problem, not a streaming service problem. However, in order for it to be newsworthy, they attach a streaming service's name to it and bingo, instant lynching is ready to occur. No one gives two shits about distributors that may or may not be acting in accordance to their agreement with the artist and/or label who's music their distributing.

READ YOUR DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENTS!!

It simply solidifies the entire concept of COMPULSORY licenses which are evil. Compulsory labor prices or compulsory product prices are as anti free market as you can get. It's worse than straight up Fascism. (At least with Fascism EVERYONE is screwed equally meaning everyone can push back, in this case, creators are just screwed over. Notice there is no need to have compulsory licenses on films or TV shows... why is that? It's digital files all the same at this point. The reason is that the film industry is grouped by major multinational owners whereas new music is coming from the true little guys all the time and the FASCIST technocrats can't wholly control them without a Govt (i.e. at the point of a gun) enforced compulsory licenses forcing the little guy to bow down and give their music away. It's heinous theft. The Beatles are worth more than Generic Artists X, Y and Z, why should they have to accept the same money? Meanwhile X, Y and Z can't easily compete because super low compulsory rates means the Beatles (or any other mega talent) is dirt cheap so why waste time with anyone else? It's bad for nearly everyone and only Spotify and the multinational corporations and the consumers who don't want to have to pay what the market will bear for great music make out. It's the opposite of Free Market.