Many of you will remember the 2012 lawsuit filed against SESAC for attempting to monopolize the market. SESAC was not subject to the same government consent decree as BMI and ASCAP. RMLC filed suit against the smaller PRO, which it was on the road to winning, before SESAC agreed to a 20-year deal with the radio industry that prevents the PRO from imposing supracompetetive rates on stations. RMLC says GMR is copying SESAC’s unlawful tactics.
From its inception in 2013, GMR’s goal has been to lure a relatively small but strategically selected group of coveted songwriters away from ASCAP and BMI with a premise to pay them at least 30% more than ASCAP or BMI. To fund the promise, GMR intends to price gouge radio stations and force them to pay exorbitant rates for licenses to perform those songwriters’ works. The RMLC says GMR has amassed 28,000 essential works from over 70 songwriters, including works written or performed by Adele, Aerosmith, Jay Z, Madonna, Taylor Swift and many others. The RMLC says radio stations cannot reasonably avoid playing these artists.
The November 2016 lawsuit against GMR came about when the RMLC threatened to perpetrate the same anti-competitive harms that SESAC wrought on the industry. “GMR exerted its monopoly power when it demanded outrageous fees that were grossly disproportional to the underlying share of the works in its repertory.”
