5 streaming platforms coordinated to remove Irving Azoff's GMR from US mechanical rate-setting

Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, and YouTube Music owner Google filed a joint motion to remove Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights from Phonorecords V, the Copyright Royalty Board proceeding setting US mechanical royalty rates for 2028 through 2032. Digital Music News published the filing on July 10, 2026.

The stated reason is procedural. GMR handles performance rights, and Phonorecords V sets mechanical rates under Section 115 of the Copyright Act.

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GMR is a performing rights organization ('PRO') representing songwriters and composers in the licensing of public performance rights. GMR thus lacks the 'significant interest' required to participate in this proceeding.

GMR quietly withdrew rather than fight the motion. Nobody at GMR, the platforms, the National Music Publishers’ Association, or the Nashville Songwriters Association International would speak on the record, and both publisher groups told the court they take no position.

Why the performance-rights argument understates GMR’s stake

On-demand streaming pays mechanical and performance royalties on the same play, and the rate formulas feed each other. A change in mechanical rates moves performance economics too, which gives a PRO like GMR more than an academic interest in the outcome. Digital Music News reports multiple sources pointing at a simpler motive: Azoff’s reputation. One source called him “very powerful and very good at negotiating increases in royalty rates,” which makes his absence convenient for the companies paying those rates.

The platforms have history here. Spotify engineered the bundling maneuver in the last rate period, folding audiobooks into Premium to cut what it owed songwriters under Phonorecords IV. Azoff still holds a seat in the process through the Music Artists Coalition, and insiders question how hard he intends to fight this round.

What Phonorecords V means for songwriters in 2028

The settlement now on the table covers the non-streaming formats: physical, permanent downloads, and ringtones. The major labels, the NMPA, NSAI, the Music Artists Coalition, and A2IM propose keeping the Phonorecords IV structure and adjusting for inflation through 2032.

The Songwriters Guild of America, Word Collections, Eight Mile Style, and copyright activist George Johnson declined to sign and are preparing formal objections demanding the 15.65-cent rate. The proposal was expected to post for public comment around July 10. The streaming rates, the numbers with real money attached, get negotiated next, with one fierce negotiator now outside the room. Rate opacity is a pattern across the industry right now, from the NMPA’s AI licensing deals to Spotify’s unpriced AI remix feature, and the CRB proceeding is where the floor under every streaming royalty check actually gets set.