Here's the backstory. Every five years, the CRB — a small federal panel almost nobody outside the music business has heard of, yet one that quietly shapes how songwriters get paid — sets the "mechanical rate": the per-song royalty owed to songwriters and composers whenever their music is pressed onto vinyl, sold as a download or licensed in another physical form. This round, Phonorecords V, covers 2028 through 2032. It's shaping up to be a fight worth paying attention to.

The Deal on the Table

In late June, the major labels along with the American Association of Independent Music, the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI),  proposed a settlement to the CRB. Their pitch, in essence: leave the existing rate structure alone. That sounds harmless enough — maybe even fair. But our joint objection filed with Word Collections, as well as those filed by Eight Mile Style and others, say it's anything but.

The Fine Print That Changes Everything

Here's the part that should stop any songwriter mid-scroll: this isn't actually a freeze. It's a pay cut, dressed up in language calm enough to slide past anyone not who isn't reading too closely. 

The current mechanical rate, as of 2026, is 13.1 cents per work — a number that's been climbing a little, each year, with inflation. But the proposed deal doesn't continue from there. It quietly resets the rate back down to Phono IV's original 12-cent base starting January 1, 2028. After that setback, rates will have to crawl back upward with modest annual increases from that lower number.

Why does that matter? SGA and Word Collections point out in our joint comments that the original 12-cent figure was calculated using inflation data only through the end of 2020. These calculations conveniently skip the sharpest inflation spikes in decades, which happened in 2021 and 2022. Factor those years in honestly and the real number songwriters should receive is closer to 15.6 cents per work. Instead, songwriters are being asked to climb back out of a hole that shouldn't exist in the first place. 

Strip away the legal language, and the math says one thing plainly: the people who actually write the songs will end up with less money, while those across the table keep more. That's not just a technicality - that's the whole deal.

Not Every "Songwriter" Group Agrees It's a Problem

Here's something that should make any songwriter's blood pressure rise: not everyone claiming to speak for creators is objecting to this deal. Some are defending it. 

NSAI isn't a bystander here — it helped write and propose the settlement in the first place, sitting at the table alongside the major labels and the NMPA. Songwriters of North America (SONA) didn't help draft the deal, but filed comments backing it afterward, calling it a "reasonable resolution" that preserves progress made in the previous rate-setting round. The Recording Academy and the Association of Independent Music Publishers voiced similar support. 

It's worth sitting with that: organizations with "songwriter" in their name, or at least a mandate to represent them, are telling the CRB it's fine to pay creators less than inflation says they're owed. Independent copyright advocate George Johnson, siding with the SGA, didn't hold back either. He filed a nearly 50-page objection calling the proposed rate "way below-market" and pointing to what he describes as extensive self-dealing between the major labels and their affiliated publishing companies. These are the same corporate players effectively sitting on both sides of the negotiating table.

What SGA and Its Allies Are Demanding

With our filing, SGA and Word Collections deny any suggestion that we've opted out of the process. Our attempts to engage with the proposing parties went largely unanswered before the deal ever reached the CRB. Our ask is straightforward: reject the settlement. Send everyone back to negotiate in good faith — at arm's length, without the built-in conflicts of interest that come from letting the same corporate players sit on both sides of the table. We remain open to talking. The real question is whether the other side is willing to negotiate honestly, or if they just want this to go away so they can silently reap the rewards.

What Happens Next

The CRB's comment period closed on August 10, and the judges will now weigh the settlement against a stack of formal objections spanning independent songwriters, publishers like Eight Mile and copyright advocates. Whatever judges decide will shape songwriters' income from physical sales and downloads all the way through 2032. More than that, it'll answer a question every working songwriter deserves to know: who's actually fighting for them, and who's just saying they are?  Digital Music News will continue covering the CRB's decision-making process as the SGA and other pro-creator groups push for a living wage for the people who make the music from which everyone else profits.