Pubmedia leaders plan for future of music licensing agreements without CPB

Public media leaders are working through questions about the future of systemwide music license agreements now paid for by CPB.  

CPB has paid for rights and royalty agreements for public media stations for decades, but Congress voted to rescind the nonprofit’s funding in July for the next two fiscal years.

Continuing the deals is one of the tasks a small transition team at CPB will work on through January as the organization winds down operations. 

While it’s not expected that stations will suddenly lose their ability to play music legally, system leaders must still resolve questions of how existing deals will be paid for and who will administer the contracts. 

“There will be a path,” said Chris Kellogg, chief programming officer at Seattle’s KEXP. “But I think for many noncomms, including KEXP, it’s going to dampen our ability to push our public service creatively.”

NPR has organized a working group focused on the issue, according to three members who spoke with Current: Kellogg; Roger LaMay, GM of WXPN in Philadelphia; and Bill Johnson, GM of Philadelphia classical and jazz station WRTI. 

The group first met July 23, less than a week after Congress approved the rescission of CPB funding, according to LaMay.

“We moved to the head of the line on this because it’s so existential for us,” LaMay said.

NPR did not answer questions from Current about the working group, but SVP Marta McLellan Ross said in a statement that CPB has negotiated music licenses in collaboration with NPR and PBS for decades. 

“NPR isn’t going anywhere, and we are committed to coordinating with public media organizations and stations to ensure that these licenses will be retained, in light of the recent rescission of public media funding,” McLellan Ross said. 

CEO Katherine Maher told the Washington Post that NPR and PBS are negotiating to potentially manage the music rights. A NPR spokesperson said the network had nothing to add when asked by Current about the comment. 

In a statement, a PBS spokesperson said conversations are in progress to ensure collective services are not disrupted, including music rights and royalties. 

Representatives for CPB did not answer emailed questions from Current for this story before publication. 

Existing deals 

Confidential provisions protect details about the contracts, but CPB financial statements show annual music royalty expenses of about $9.6 million in FY23 and FY24. 

Broadcast music license agreements with ASCAP, BMI, GMR, the Harry Fox Agency and SESAC cover all stations that receive CPB Community Service Grants or that are NPR or PBS member stations, according to CPB’s website. Those deals run through the end of 2027. 

Another agreement involving SoundExchange covers online music streaming for public radio stations. A proposed rule by the Copyright Royalty Board would set those royalty fees at $950,000 in 2026. They would then increase annually, reaching $1,050,000 in 2030. Comments on the rule were due June 16.

Given the existing agreements, LaMay is confident that the system is not heading to a place where every station has to make its own deals. He added that he doesn’t expect stations will have to stop playing music at the start of the new year.

“That’s not going to happen,” LaMay said.

But two things need to take place for the continuity of the agreements, he said: A new entity will need to be found to take over administering the contracts, and a funding source will need to be identified to pay for them. 

“Everybody involved is determined to do those two things,” LaMay said.

He added that he is optimistic that CPB will be able to pay forward the deals’ fees for a significant period of time, giving the system more time to determine future funding. 

Kellogg said the entire public media ecosystem will be asking donors for support with the loss of direct CPB funds and fees previously paid for by CPB.

“I’m sure there’s hope that a major donor or foundation will cover all the fees, but I’m not aware of a candidate willing to do so at the moment,” Kellogg said. 

He expects fees for KEXP would be approximately $10,000 annually if paid by the station, but he noted that he does not yet have a SoundExchange estimate. 

If that support isn’t found to cover the total cost, the main problem would be dividing the cost in an agreeable way between television and radio and then among national and local organizations, according to Ernest Sanchez, a longtime public broadcasting attorney and founder of Sanchez Law Firm. 

“There needs to be some sort of coordinating mechanism,” Sanchez said. “There’s no getting around the fact that PBS and NPR are going to be the two biggest players.”

Sanchez was the radio negotiator for the initial deals in the 1970s. In those early discussions, CPB, NPR and PBS considered dividing up the costs, but CPB instead picked up the tab. 

The discussion was informed by the larger debate about how CPB funds would be divided between radio and television, Sanchez said. Additionally, having a single, larger pot of money was viewed as better for negotiations with the music industry than if it were divided up.

“There would be enough inefficiencies in the process that the system would end up paying much more money in the aggregate than if a group deal was negotiated,” Sanchez said. 

The best possible circumstance would be finding an entity to pay for the licensing on behalf of the whole system, said WRTI’s Johnson. 

“It would be an exercise in deconstructing something that was not designed to be deconstructed when we talk about the individual stations having to pay for this,” Johnson said. 

CPB EVP and COO Kathy Merritt said at the Public Media Business Association conference in May that the nonprofit could possibly transfer the agreements to a different organization. 

Kellogg said his “strongest desire” is that a single entity will continue to “lead this from negotiation to administration.” 

“I don’t yet see a clear path if CPB were to cease to exist,” Kellogg said.

‘It’s existential’ 

The systemwide contracts are important not only because they cover the costs of the music but because of the amount of work it would require individual stations to negotiate their own deals, LaMay said. 

“We’re a music station that has more capacity than most, and it would be a real challenge for us,” LaMay said. “For a really small station, it would be just an impossible task in both respects.”

KEXP has been anticipating this situation for some time and discussed it internally and with other Washington state broadcasters before the rescission, Kellogg said. They also discussed it at WXPN’s NON-COMMvention in Philadelphia, he added. 

“We were only going to do so much before it became a reality,” Kellogg said. “Now it’s a reality.”

LaMay said an update from CPB will inform next steps on the issue. He said he did not know when the update will be given.

He said that given the anxiety in the system on this issue and the need for CPB to transfer administration of the agreements, it “would behoove us to resolve it as soon as possible.” 

For music stations, the agreements are necessary for what they do. 

“It’s existential,” said Johnson. “If we don’t have music rights somehow covered, we effectively have lost all of our programming.”

Reporter Tyler Falk contributed to this article.