Determination of Rates and Terms for Preexisting Subscription Services and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services

The Copyright Royalty Judges publish their ruling on regulatory interpretation that was referred to them by the United States District Court for the District Of Columbia. The regulation at issue is about gross revenue exclusions that a satellite digital audio radio service may use when calculating royalty payments owed to SoundExchange, a collective for copyright owners, for digital transmissions of sound recordings pursuant to a statutory license. The Judges find that Sirius XM properly interpreted the regulation to apply to pre-'72 sound recordings and that it improperly excluded certain revenues from its Gross Revenues royalty base.