Luke Adams (Drums), Jacob Michael (Bass), John Thornley (Vocals) and Paul Thornley (Guitar) from US Royalty. Photo Credit – Michelle Alexandria
Did you know that the organization that manages and handles Internet royalty fees for Artist isn’t based in New York or Los Angeles? It is based right here in Washington, DC. It doesn’t seem like an immediately obvious location for an organization focused on securing Royalty rights for musicians, until you realize that DC is the center of the political world and musical artists want their voices heard when it comes to issues like copyright protection, licensing fees and more.
One thing that struck me as odd was the fact that royalties have to be paid whenever music is streamed, but those same restrictions do not apply to terrestrial radio. I’m not sure why it is ok to force the Pandora, Rhapsodies, or XM Radios of the world to pay a fee every time a song is streamed, but not local radio. I’m sure many musicians are now questioning this.
If the SoundExchange is representative of the growth of streaming music, then it is interesting to track their growth along side the digital music space. In 2005 the organization doled out $20 million in Royalties, in 2012 alone they paid out over $462 million dollars with nearly $1.5 billion paid out in the last several years. According to the organization’s fact sheet nearly 100 million Americans listen to Internet radio stations each week, and more than 23 million listen to Satellite radio.
The offices feature large windows with beautiful views of downtown DC and are centrally located just a few blocks away from the 18,200 seat Verizon Center, home to some of the biggest concerts of the year. The open kitchen area serves as a hub of ideas for the organization and now is going to be the home for a series of informal concerts.
Luke Adams (Drums), Jacob Michael (Bass), John Thornley (Vocals) and Paul Thornley (Guitar) from the DC based band U.S. Royalty was on hand to christen the new concert series. “SoundExchange does a lot of work with Royalties on the backend that we as artists don’t always get to see, we’re here to support SoundExchange because they support us. It’s a good marriage,” said Paul.
Their music encompasses a lot of different genres but the dominating theme is centered on Rock and Roll with a little hint of bluesy swagger thrown in to balance everything out. There is something always thrilling about seeing a new artist enter the scene and being able to say, yeah “I saw US Royalty before they became big.” It is ironic that their name is called US Royalty, Jacob Michael just laughed at me saying, “It was just a coincidence.”
Mirrors, the band’s debut album is currently available on all your digital music services of choice. “With this record we wanted to present a body of work, a complete thought,” says singer John Thornley. To achieve this, the band wrote and rewrote songs for a year, demoing and dissecting while on the road and at home. John continues, “Because we traveled for about a year and a half before we recorded the album, there is definitely a travel vibe to the record.” Their follow-up album will be out in January.
When asked to describe their musical themes, “It is a marriage of a lot of their interest and is a mix of folk, dessert blues and rock and roll.” The band is influenced by the likes of Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones and various contemporary Jazz artists. Their songs primarily speak of traveling and playing together. “This whole band was formed based on us traveling together,” continued Paul.
Shared experiences, traveling and playing together, informed the writing process as did a steady intake of Kubrick, Godard, McCarthy, and Spaghetti Westerns. The sun-bleached Ennio Morricone soundtracks factored heavily into the scope and range of MIRRORS as the band channeled the sense of epic drama his most memorable pieces evoke – those timeless studies in tension and release.
For more information on US Royalty visit them at US Royalty Music /home.php and for more information on SoundExchange visit SoundExchange.com.