A federal judge has ruled on a complicated case about how ASCAP-represented songwriters should be paid for music streamed by online services like Yahoo and AOL.

ASCAP has a PDF of the decision here. WSJ ($) story here, WashPo here. Wired News has the AP story on the ruling here.

Note that this doesn’t apply to artists and record companies, just royalties stemming from the rights of songwriters, the so-called publishing world. ASCAP is one of two major organizations that represent songwriters and publishing companies; the other, BMI has its own deal with the services. The ruling applies to AOL, Yahoo and Real Networks.
I haven’t read the decision yet. While some figures in the decision are blacked out, it seems that the judge reasoned that since radio pays, on average 2 percent to songwriters, the online streaming word, which involves a lot more listener choice and control, is more valuable and hence should pay more, or 2.5 percent.

That’s an interesting observation. According to the stories, that could total $100 million from the three services over an eight-year period in question, based on all sorts of variables. More on this later.