- The appearance of Kid Rock at the White House led some wags to consider whether Rock (Bob Ritchie) was being considered for the post of U.N. ambassador -- but he was there for the signing of the Music Modernization Act, bringing heavy change to copyright laws.
- A holdout by Sirius XM (SIRI +2.6%) came to an end last month, allowing for a compromise that led to unanimous Senate passage.
- The law sets a number of factors including royalty rates around sound recordings for the streaming age (services and music downloads), and enforcing songwriting copyrights.
- Related tickers: Spotify (SPOT +1.6%); Pandora Media (P +1.8%).