Stones and others get what they want
Paint it green for the The Rolling Stones and other aging rockers.
New Yorkbased satellite radio broadcaster SiriusXM has agreed to pay $210 million to five major record labels to end a longrunning court battle over royalties for songs recorded before 1972.
The money will go to Capitol Records, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Warner Music Group and ABKCO Music, an independent label that controls the rights to early Rolling Stones songs. Together, they control about 80 percent of the golden oldies that Sirius has played.
Under the settlement, Sirius can broadcast the music through the end of 2017. After that it has the right to seek new agreements with the record companies.
The dispute stemmed from a loophole in federal copyright law, which doesn’t cover songs recorded before 1972. Instead, that music is covered by laws that vary from state to state. The labels sued in California court.
Sirius hasn’t settled a similar suit brought by ’60s band The Turtles.
“This is a great step forward for all music creators,” Cary Sherman, chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said in a statement. “Music has tremendous value, whether it was made in 1970 or 2015.”
The group hopes this pushes other digital music services such as Pandora to pay for the use of pre1972 songs, Sherman said.
Pandora, whose pre’72 music makes up only 5 percent of its song library, would be “open to supporting the full federalization of pre’72 sound recordings under a technologyneutral approach” that treats all competitors the same, spokesman Dave Grimaldi told The Post.