Administration Deal No Bar to Songs Grant from Artist

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ruled that a music publisher's exclusive administration rights to songs by recording artist Lori McKenna didn't prevent Warner Bros. Records (WBR) from getting the rights directly from McKenna for compositions on McKenna's Bittertown album. Melanie Howard Music Inc. (MHM) v. Warner Bros. Records Inc., 3:08-0979.

MHM filed a copyright infringement suit over songs on both McKenna's Bittertown and Unglamorous albums alleging that WBR failed to procure licenses from the publisher. (MHM also claimed it wasn't bound by a controlled composition clause in McKenna's WBR agreement that limited payment of songs to 11 compositions for an album.) MHM had signed McKenna to an exclusive songwriting agreement (ESA) in 2004 that gave MHM 100% of the copyrights in songs written by McKenna during the term of the agreement and 50% for songs previously written by her that became “new recordings.” MHM also obtained the exclusive administration rights for McKenna songs in which it received copyright interests. McKenna's recording agreement with WBR was dated Aug. 30, 2005, but signed in November 2005. The Bittertown album was released on Sept. 27, 2005.

District Judge Aleta A. Trauger granted summary judgment for WBR as to the Bittertown compositions. Judge Trauger noted: “MHM does not obtain 'new recordings,' and McKenna and MHM do not become 'co-publish[ers],' until McKenna [specifically] transfers her interest in those songs to MHM. Here, McKenna did not transfer her interest in the Bittertown songs until the Amendment to the ESA, which was signed on Sept. 29, 2005. By this point, McKenna, as exclusive owner of the Bittertown songs, had already issued licenses to use those songs to WBR. On this interpretation of the Amendment to the ESA, there can be no dispute that, at that time, McKenna was fully within her rights as copyright owner to license those songs.”

The district judge additionally granted summary judgment to WBR as to five songs on McKenna's later Unglamorous album, because the record company had received permission for those from the co-writers/co-owners of the compositions. But the court denied summary judgment to WBR on the record label's claim of an implied license from MHM for the remaining McKenna Unglamorous songs by finding that, based on the evidence, “a reasonable jury could find either way on the implied license issue.”