SiriusXM settles lawsuit on royalties for songs made before ’72

For the past two years, the music industry has been watching a series of lawsuits centered on an obscure aspect of copyright law: whether the performers on older recordings should get royalties when their songs are played on digital radio services.

The settlement may open the door to millions of dollars in new royalty payments for older performers, who in many cases have not been paid from Internet and satellite radio.

[...] coming just days after Apple — nudged by Taylor Swift — reversed course over its plan not to pay royalties during trials of its new music service, the Sirius settlement was interpreted as another win for artists in the digital age.

“This is a great step forward for all music creators,” said Cary Sherman, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, which coordinated the suit on behalf of Sony, Universal, Warner and Abkco, an independent that controls rights to early Rolling Stones songs.

For that reason, many digital radio services, including Sirius and Pandora, have not paid recording royalties when they play older songs.

[...] two years ago members of the 1960s band the Turtles, whose hits included “Happy Together” sued Sirius in three federal courts, saying their songs before 1972 were still covered under state laws in New York, California and Florida.