On the this episode of the Artist Rights Watch, Nik, David, and Chris sit down to talk about the recent developments with the CRB and mechanicals with lawyer and advocate, Kevin Casini. The Copyright Royalty Board who herein will more than likely be referred to as the CRB, ‘is a US system of three copyright reality judges who determines rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the US Copyright Office.’ The US mechanical royalties are determined by the CRB and they meet every 5 years to determine the rate. Songwriter groups argued for a higher rate, and the CRB agreed. On March 29, 2022 the CRB agreed to unfreeze the $0.091 mechanical royalty rate which would commence a fight for a new rate in the 2023-2027 period. Over the past few years, there has been numerous criticisms about the constant rule for freezing the mechanical royalty rate. The royalty rate currently is $0.091 which was set back in 2006, and frankly, songwriters are making less  money due to economic inflation.   Below are some links about Kevin Casini: https://twitter.com/KCEsq https://kcesq.medium.com   Selected Frozen Mechanicals Comments: Rosanne Cash Helienne Lindvall, David Lowery, Blake Morgan David Poe Abby North, Erin McAnally, Chelsea Crowell Kevin Casini NMPA, NSAI, Sony, Warner, Universal Comment with Copy of MOU4   Below are some links for further reading: Copyright Royalty Board’s Rejection of NMPA, NSAI, Sony, Warner, Universal settlement   https://completemusicupdate.com/article/us-copyright-royalty-board-rejects-proposal-to-keep-mechanical-royalty-on-discs-and-downloads-unchanged/   https://variety.com/2022/music/news/copyright-royalty-board-crb-rate-1235219872/   https://musictechpolicy.com   https://www.crb.gov   https://variety.com/2022/music/news/songwriters-win-copyright-royalty-board-mechanical-royalties-1235259518/   https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/record-labels-and-publishers-ink-major-settlement-moving-from-9-1-cents-to-12-cents-per-track-for-us-mechanical-royalties-on-physical-sales1/   Below are our social links and terms of use: Chris: http://www.christiancastle.com/chris-castle David: https://twitter.com/davidclowery?s=20 https://www.instagram.com/davidclowery/ Nik: https://www.instagram.com/nikpatelmusic/ www.nikpatelmusic.com   Website: https://artistrightswatch.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artistrightswatch Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtistRights?s=20   Terms of Use: https://artistrightswatchdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/arw-podcast-terms-of-use-v-1-i-1.pdf   Intro/Outro song: “All My Years” by Nik Patel