The competitive market value of copyright in music: a digital gordian knot

Résumé

Pricing copyrighted works or assets so that creators are fairly compensated, while users can benefit from the digital economy given the information good character of such works has always been a difficult task. Doing it in the digital era is even more challenging. Striking that balance and determining the proper royalty level and the efficient rate base require that the competitive market value of such copyright in musical works and sound recordings be ascertained. I review some of the challenges and pitfalls in adequately framing the issues, and review an approach to infer the competitive market value of music in commercial terrestrial/Hertzian radio, satellite radio and interactive music streaming services from choices of operators in those industries. The resulting royalty formulas and payments are embedded into and discussed through the economics of public policy towards culture (the elephant in the room). An Appendix presents the main characteristics of music copyright structures in different jurisdictions.