Orchestra Locks Horns With Copyright Cops Over Works by Long-Dead Composers; Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2026

Caroline Kimeu, Wall Street Journal; Orchestra Locks Horns With Copyright Cops Over Works by Long-Dead Composers

"The Nairobi Orchestra walked on stage for a recent afternoon concert ready to perform a demanding selection of pieces, including Hector Berlioz’s moody 1830 “Symphonie Fantastique.” But conductor Levi Wataka was nowhere to be found.

The musicians sat awkwardly as the minutes ticked by. Audience members talked among themselves. Some wondered whether he had forgotten he had a concert to conduct or had ripped his trousers.

A viola player eventually wandered out of the auditorium and returned offering an apology for the unexplained holdup: Wataka was locked in a tense exchange in the lobby with officers from the Performing and Audio Visual Rights Society of Kenya, who were demanding the orchestra pay royalties for performing pieces by classical composers long in the public domain.

And they had brought along some police officers for back up."

Musicians brace for impact as Senate vote on public radio looms; The Washington Post, July 15, 2025

 Ethan Beck, The Washington Post; Musicians brace for impact as Senate vote on public radio looms

"For the more than 1,000 public radio stations that play independent music, Boilen says the bill is an existential threat...

“All stations would be in trouble of not being able to play music,” NPR president and CEO Katherine Maher said. The CPB spends nearly $20 million on licensing most years, covering an expense Maher said would be impossible for most stations to afford. “Regardless of how big you are, even the largest station in the NPR network and in public radio still operates on a budget of less than $100 million a year.”

Licensing isn’t the only thing threatened by the rescission bill, which also retracts funding from foreign aid programs such as global AIDS prevention and other public media such as PBS."