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First Circuit Defines 'Featured Artist' for Purpose of Right to Sound-Recording Royalties from Digital Transmissions

By Stan Soocher
July 01, 2024

To the public, a band typically is defined as its performing members, not a business entity that may control the music group. But when it comes to royalty rights, are the performers or the business entity entitled to "featured artist" statutory royalties from digital transmissions of the band's sound recordings?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently faced this issue in a dispute involving the former lead singer of the salsa group El Gran Combo. Ithier v. Aponte-Cruz, 22-1859.

The Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 established the "public performance" royalty right in the United States for sound-recordings digital transmissions, such as by cable or satellite services. Seventeen U.S.C. §114(g)(2)(D) of the statute states: "45 percent of the receipts [i.e., public-performance monies] shall be paid, on a per sound recording basis, to the recording artist or artists featured on such sound recording (or the persons conveying rights in the artists' performance in the sound recordings." However, the statute doesn't define the phrase "the recording artist or artists featured on such sound recording." (Under other §114(g) provisions, 50 percent of the revenues are paid to sound-recordings copyright owners, 2.5 percent to side vocalists and 2.5 percent to side musicians.)

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