Musicians might soon be able to ban covers of their songs from Spotify after the US Copyright Office proposed new changes to music licensing laws.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Office wants to alter Section 115 of the US Copyright Act, which provides a compulsory license for artists making covers. It recommends that songwriters or their publishers could stop covers from being posted on interactive sites or download sites – which include Spotify.
“With respect to cover recordings, the Office recommends an approach whereby those who seek to rerecord songs could still obtain a license to do so, including in physical formats. But the dissemination of such recordings for interactive new media uses, as well as in the form of downloads, would be subject to the publisher’s ability to opt out of the compulsory regime,” the review read.
It continued: “Where the publisher had opted out, someone who produced a cover recording would need to obtain a voluntary license to post the song on an interactive streaming or download service.”
The move could mean that artists such as Taylor Swift would be able to ban covers of their songs from streaming services. Swift withheld her latest album, ‘1989’, from Spotify when it was released in November and subsequently decided to remove all of her previous releases from the streaming service.
The singer also recently trademarked the use of the phrase “This sick beat” as well as a number of other lyrics from the album. The move sees Swift now own the rights to phrases “Party Like It’s 1989”, “Cause We Never Go Out Of Style,” “Could Show You Incredible Things” and “Nice To Meet You, Where You Been?”, which have been registered with the US government.