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The Justice Department, as part of a larger
review, is reviewing two consent decrees from the 1940s that
determine what digital streaming services, radio and television
stations, bars and others pay Broadcast Music Inc, or BMI, and
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP,
to play music.
At a Senate sub-committee hearing, Senator Orrin Hatch pressed
Makan Delrahim, head of the Justice Department's antitrust
division, to move cautiously if there was a decision to scrap
the consent decrees, saying that abruptly cancelling them would
be "a mistake."
Delrahim, in response, said he recognized the potential problem.
"We recognize the disruption and cost of just terminating
without a proper transition period," Delrahim told the antitrust
panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Currently, a rate court in New York sets the royalties that
ASCAP and BMI, which represent artists and music publishers, are
paid. Companies that license music have worried about a sharp
increase in costs if the system is changed because ASCAP and BMI
license about 90 percent of music heard online and in movies, TV
shows and bars.
Delrahim said at an event last week, "Absolutely (I) think that
the marketplace should determine how much an artist gets paid."
On an unrelated matter, Delrahim and Joe Simons, the chairman of
the Federal Trade Commission, expressed support for a bill that
Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced last year that would raise fees
companies pay for reviews of big mergers.
Klobuchar's bill would raise the highest fee from $280,000 to
$2.25 million. Smaller deals would see their fees cut.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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