M3 StudiosSpring, TX5 min readJuly 29, 2026On June 29, 2026 the three major record companies, the National Music Publishers' Association, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Music Artists Coalition, and the American Association of Independent Music filed a joint motion asking the Copyright Royalty Board to lock the statutory mechanical rate for physical records, permanent downloads, ringtones, and music bundles from January 1, 2028 through December 31, 2032, with no change other than continuing inflation adjustments. The Judges published the proposal for public comment on July 10, and comments and objections are due no later than August 10, 2026. For a Houston songwriter pressing vinyl or selling downloads, that filing decides the per-copy rate for the next five years, and the window to say anything about it is open for less than two weeks.
The rate under discussion is the one most independent artists never look at, because streaming trained everyone to think in fractions of a cent. The current statutory mechanical rate is 13.1 cents per song for a recording under five minutes in 2026, or 2.52 cents per minute of playing time for anything longer, whichever produces more. It is paid per copy made and distributed, so it behaves like a unit cost rather than a trickle, and it lands hardest on exactly the formats that came back: vinyl, CDs, cassettes, and paid downloads.
This is the part the headlines keep getting wrong. Section 115 of the Copyright Act splits into configurations, and the settlement filed in June covers Subpart B only. Subpart B is physical phonorecords, permanent downloads, ringtones, and music bundles. It is not streaming. Interactive streaming lives in Subpart C, that rate is not part of this agreement, and the Judges have already told the participants that if they cannot negotiate the rest, written direct statements are due no later than October 5, 2026.
So the accurate reading is narrower and more interesting than a freeze. The parties settled the part they agree on, which is the physical and download side, and they left the fight that decides most of the money for later this year. Anyone reading a summary that says mechanical rates are settled through 2032 is reading about vinyl and downloads while the streaming proceeding is still live.
The settlement that was filed decides what a song earns on a record you can hold. The proceeding that is still open decides what it earns on the platform where almost everyone hears it.
The statutory mechanical rate sat at 9.1 cents from 2006 through 2022. Fifteen years, no increase, while the cost of everything else moved. The Phonorecords IV settlement broke that pattern by tying the physical and download rate to an annual cost-of-living adjustment, which is how the number climbed to 13.1 cents in 2026.
An inflation-only continuation through 2032 therefore does two things at once. It protects songwriters from another decade and a half of erosion, which is real and worth having. It also removes the possibility of a negotiated increase for five more years, because a rate indexed to the Consumer Price Index holds its purchasing power and nothing more. Whether that trade is a win depends entirely on whether you believe the per-copy value of a composition should track inflation or should track the format's recovery, and reasonable people in this business land on opposite sides of that question.
The Copyright Royalty Board's own notice names both groups. The movants are the publisher and songwriter participants, meaning the National Music Publishers' Association, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, and the Music Artists Coalition, together with the record company participants, meaning Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Warner Music Group, and the American Association of Independent Music.
Four copyright owner participants had settlement conversations and declined to join: the Songwriters Guild of America, Word Collections, the Eight Mile Music Companies, and an individual songwriter participant, George Johnson. That split is the story. The organizations that hold the largest catalogs agreed, and several of the parties that represent individual writers did not.
Here is the honest version, because this is the point where most coverage overpromises. The statute allows the Judges to decline to adopt a negotiated settlement as the basis for statutory rates if a participant in the proceeding objects and the Judges conclude the agreement does not provide a reasonable basis for setting rates. A comment from a songwriter who is not a participant does not carry that same procedural trigger.
What a comment does do is enter the public record of a federal docket on the question of what a composition is worth per copy, at a moment when the Judges have specifically solicited views. That record is read, it is cited, and it shapes how the next proceeding opens. Filing is worth the twenty minutes if the answer matters to your catalog. Believing a single comment will move the rate is not the same thing, and nobody in this position benefits from being sold that.
If the Judges do adopt the settlement, the resulting rates and terms bind every copyright owner of a musical work in the covered activities, not only the parties who signed it. That is the mechanism worth understanding: a private agreement among trade organizations becomes the law that applies to a songwriter in Spring, TX who never heard the proceeding was open.
Comments go through eCRB, the Copyright Royalty Board's electronic filing system, at app.crb.gov, and must identify docket number 25-CRB-0013-PR (2028-2032). Two practical details decide whether a late-week attempt actually lands. New user accounts are approved only during business hours, so registering on the weekend of August 8 does not get you filed by Monday, and every account requires multi factor authentication before it can submit anything. Register first, file second, and leave several business days between the two.
The other thing to know before you type: every properly filed comment appears in eCRB without change, including any personal information it contains. Write it as a public business document, because that is what it becomes.
Put the rate on an actual project. A 300 copy vinyl run of a ten song album, every song under five minutes, carries 13.1 cents per song per copy, which is 3,000 song copies at 13.1 cents, or $393 in mechanical royalties owed by whoever makes and distributes the record. On a self released album where the artist wrote and owns all ten compositions and is also the one pressing it, that money moves from one pocket to the other and the accounting still has to exist. On a record that includes a song someone else wrote, it is a real payment to a real writer, and the same is true in reverse when your song appears on someone else's pressing.
Scale it and the point sharpens. Ten releases like that over the five year rate period is roughly four thousand dollars of composition income decided by a docket most of the writers involved will never open. That is the argument for reading it now. If you are working out what a physical run costs before the mechanicals even start, the real pressing math for independent artists covers the manufacturing side, and the current 2026 rate breakdown covers what is being paid today.
Three moves, in order of how much they pay. First, confirm your compositions are registered and your splits are documented, because a rate is worthless on a song nobody can match to you, and the split sheet is the document that settles it. Second, if you are releasing physical product or selling downloads, price the mechanical into the run before you order it, not after the boxes arrive, and if you are releasing someone else's song, the license you need is a separate step. Third, decide whether you have anything to say to the Judges before August 10, and if you do, register for eCRB today rather than the week of the deadline.
The larger lesson holds past this docket. Rate proceedings run on a five year cycle, they are public the entire time, and the writers who understand them are the ones who stop being surprised by their statements. If the business side of your catalog is the part you have never had time to learn, the publishing and royalty material in the M3 Studios education library is built for exactly that gap.
As of July 29, 2026. Rate proceedings change. Verify current status in the docket before acting on any figure here. General information, not legal advice.
The statutory mechanical rate for physical records and permanent downloads is 13.1 cents per song for recordings under five minutes, or 2.52 cents per minute of playing time for longer recordings, whichever is greater. It is paid per copy made and distributed, and it is adjusted annually for inflation under the Phonorecords IV terms.
A partial settlement filed with the Copyright Royalty Board on June 29, 2026 by the three major record companies, the National Music Publishers' Association, the Nashville Songwriters Association International, the Music Artists Coalition, and the American Association of Independent Music. It proposes continuing the current physical, download, ringtone, and music bundle rates from 2028 through 2032 with inflation adjustments only.
No. The settlement covers Subpart B configurations, which are physical phonorecords, permanent downloads, ringtones, and music bundles. Interactive streaming rates sit in Subpart C and remain part of the open proceeding, with written direct statements due no later than October 5, 2026 if the participants do not reach agreement.
Comments and objections are filed through eCRB, the Copyright Royalty Board's electronic filing application at app.crb.gov, and must identify docket number 25-CRB-0013-PR (2028-2032). New accounts are approved only during business hours and require multi factor authentication, so register several business days before the August 10, 2026 deadline. All filed comments become public, including personal information.
Every copyright owner of a musical work in the covered activities, not only the organizations that signed the agreement. That is why a proceeding conducted between trade groups sets the terms that apply to an independent songwriter who was never part of it.
Follow M3 Studios for the money and rights mechanics Houston artists actually use: Instagram @metamusicmediainc, TikTok @metamusicmediainc, YouTube @metamusicmediainc. Questions: info@metamusicmedia.com. The rate is set in Washington. The record is made in Spring, TX: metamusicmedia.com/pages/book-your-session.
Methodology. The vinyl example assumes 300 copies of a ten song album with every recording under five minutes, so the per song rate of 13.1 cents applies rather than the per minute rate. 300 copies times 10 songs is 3,000 song copies, times $0.131 equals $393.00 in mechanical royalties owed on the run. The five year projection multiplies one comparable release per period step and is illustrative, not a forecast.
↑ Back to top