From the Top:  The Copyright Act of 1976

While discussing the finer points of federal legislation may not seem like the most interesting newsletter topic, a recent revelation has massive impact on the Direct to Fan model.  Specifically, the Copyright Act of 1976 is beginning to allow the reversion of copyrights from labels and publishers back to writers.  And those writers, understanding the benefits of direct to fan sales and promotion, are eager to regain control of some very valuable copyrights.

Eliot van Buskirk wrote a recent post on Wired about this topic.   He explains, “The Copyright Act includes two sets of rules for how this works. If an artist or author sold a copyright before 1978 (Section 304), they or their heirs can take it back 56 years later. If the artist or author sold the copyright during or after 1978 (Section 203), they can terminate that grant after 35 years. Assuming all the proper paperwork gets done in time, record labels could lose sound recording copyrights they bought in 1978 starting in 2013, 1979 in 2014, and so on. For 1953-and-earlier music, grants can already be terminated.”

In other words, the 1950s and ‘60s yielded some fairly impressive copyrights.  Think about Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.  Not to mention legendary jazz recordings by Miles Davis, Art Blakey, and John Coltrane.  Those recordings earned massive fortunes for the artists, but even more so for the major labels.  With the copyrights reverting back to the writers (and their heirs), the artists have the option to do what independent artists are now leading the charge on.  They can go direct to fan.

The article goes on to say,  “The Eagles plan to file grant termination notices by the end of the year, according to Law.com … Just think of what the Eagles are doing when they get back their whole catalog. They don’t need a record company now…. You’ll be able to go to Eaglesband.com and get all their songs.

Direct to Fan is going to be the next big wave in the music industry.  Now artists at every level are going to have the freedom to pursue more direct models with their music.  At Nimbit we applaud this, and so do our artists.