Marti Cuevas: President of Mayimba Music, ASCAP Board Member
Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris
In this episode of Music Matters with Darrell Craig Harris, Marti Cuevas, President of Mayimba Music and ASCAP board member, shares insights into a
Key takeaways
- Independent music companies must actively defend their intellectual property against digital piracy and unauthorized distribution.
- The legal victory underscores that even small labels can successfully challenge powerful entities when they have proper documentation and due diligence.
Main topics
- Intellectual property protection in the music industry
- Legal battle against unauthorized digital distribution of music masters
Notable quotes
"You have to check. You got to check." – On the importance of due diligence when licensing intellectual property.
Conclusion
Marti Cuevas emphasizes that protecting music rights is not just about legal victory but also about
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome Speaker 2 (0:09) to Music Matters Podcast with Daryl Craig Harris. Join us as he explores all things music, bringing you exclusive conversations with Grammy winners, industry insiders, and some of the most exciting new indie artists breaking onto the scene. Speaker 3 (0:35) Marty Cuevas, president of Mayimba Music and on the board of directors for ASCAP. How are you doing today? Speaker 1 (0:41) I'm doing great, especially speaking with you. Speaker 3 (0:45) Appreciate your time. I know you're a very busy woman and you have a lot going on. One of the main reasons we're talking today is because there was just a recent large illegal victory related to your publishing company. And you guys oversee rights primarily in the Latin music sector, but I'm sure you, as a member of the board of ASCAP, you kind of see this as a 360 view as well. Tell me about the legal victory and what that case was about. Speaker 1 (1:08) Okay. This case actually commenced about, now it'd be like 10 or 12 years ago. We noticed that this particular individual, whose artistic name is Luigi Blian, he was providing masters that... belonged to a company that we administer, J &N Records, J &N Publishing. He was providing these to digital distributors with zero permission or authorization from anybody. And so we started to communicate with him and say, look, you know, you have to take this stuff down, etc., etc. Well, this went on for years. And we complained because this particular person had a contract with our digital distributor, which is the Orchard, and we complained to the Orchard, and they finally kicked him off. But it took them nine years to kick him off. I think the guy has, you know, what they call in Spanish, labia, you know, the gift of gab. He's like an excellent hustler. So when he got kicked off of Orchard, he went to Warner Distribution to Ada. And since we know the president of Ada, we warned him. But he did not heed. So we sued. We brought a lawsuit against Warner and against this Luigi's various companies. He has a whole bunch of different companies in Florida and New York, you know. And so we brought this lawsuit. And Warner, when they saw our documents as opposed to his, they got out. You know, they realized that this guy was not worthy. So then we discovered that this person. Had taken a three quarter of a million dollar loan against intellectual property. Speaker 3 (2:49) Right. Futuralties. Speaker 1 (2:50) Yeah. From sound royalties. Right. And so this provoked another level of abuse against us when sound royalties sued us as well, because they're out three quarters of a million dollars, but they didn't do any due diligence. So, you know, I don't have much sympathy for that. You have to, especially in our world of. you know, a Latin music boy, you got to check. You got to check. Speaker 3 (3:17) And people who don't understand the masters situation. So the masters are the original recording and usually on tape at this point, we're talking about older artists. And once those get out there, they go anywhere. They can be sold and resold and resold. So that, that stuff is very, very important to control. Right. Speaker 1 (3:37) Yeah, well, the way that we legitimately distribute music digitally, at least in our company and the companies that we administer, when you do a deal with an artist or you're producing yourself, you do the deal with the artist, the artist delivers the masters to you. Right. And then you go through a process of providing those to the digital distributor and we check. We check and we also listen because there's a lot of problems. samples that could be in a master, and also people claiming publishing on other people's stuff. So we listen. And there's three of us that listen because my partner, because my son, he's from the hip-hop generation, so he really knows all those samples, you know. And then our other partner, Jose Mendez Fefo, who's incredible, he... He should be a musician for his fantastic ear, and so we give it to him for the Latin side, and I listen as well. What this guy Luigi Brian did over the history was he just grabbed stuff from the Internet and put it out instead of delivery. And then the other thing that he's doing is like the copyrights or the intellectual property involved in some of these things where he actually does have a grant from the label. he was claiming the videos that were produced last year he can't claim live videos as his own masters that belongs to the artist or the artist administrator and in this case we have an administration agreement with these two artists that fit into that category so what happened was the judge finally finally came down and decided against him for copyright infringement, contributory infringement, injunction. And what this guy has yet to realize, I'm sure, is that it's not only the masters, it's the musical composition. So there might be a case where he may be able to show chain of title to the masters, but he cannot put that out because of the musical composition. So, you know, for us, for other people, you know, in the... in the musical ecosystem of multinationals, you know, $1.2 million is a little drop in the bucket, but for us, we didn't, we didn't go do this for the money. We did this for the principle because somebody has to stand up for this and also stand up against the huge amount of misinformation that there is, you know, in music business nowadays. And the reason for this. Anybody can do it. You don't need to have any background to distribute music anymore, you know, so people that have no idea are putting music out. They have the credits wrong. It's just absolutely. you know, mind boggling. And I feel like a boxer, like all day I'm fighting. Yeah, Speaker 3 (6:31) it's a complicated world because there is a lot. And I've actually interviewed some very prominent music attorneys. I know you worked with one in New York and and probably several. And it's a very complicated topic and very, very misunderstood by artists in particular what what what the copyright is, what, you know, music publishing versus mechanical, all that stuff. Obviously, in ASCAP, too, you guys deal with that on a daily basis. And we even started, we were talking before we got started about AI, because that's also a very hot topic that gets in that same realm. Talk a little bit about that, because in terms of, you know, ASCAP, you guys, I'm sure, are hearing about this daily, how to deal with the AI issue. And again, it comes back into the streaming and grabbing other people's property and trying to make it your own. Speaker 1 (7:17) Yeah, it's such a complex situation. And, you know, it's such a gray area. Obviously, can't discuss anything that goes on in our board meetings. Sure, sure. Speaker 3 (7:29) Get Speaker 1 (7:30) in serious trouble. But I can say that my feelings about AI is that don't be scraping people's stuff, period, full stop. And, you know, we are not giving licenses to any of these companies that are coming. for AI. We're just not doing it. And we do control, you know, some important copyrights. You know, I work with JNN Records and JNN Publishing have a huge, incredible tropical catalog of legendary evergreen hits. And maybe, you know, Juan, who's the president, he might have gone for it, but he's got young daughters. And now they're in the business with us and they say, no, no, no. So, but I wanted to... tell you this little anecdote about an AI master that actually came out in a positive manner for the songwriters. And there's a song, Bonita Bonita, that was originally recorded by an artist from the Dominican Republic who I really like. He's very interesting. He's called El Poeta Callejero, the street poet. They recorded it. It's been years ago. And we represent on this song the producer, Milo Pignallo. He did the music. Speaker 3 (8:47) So Speaker 1 (8:48) some guy went and he did a version of Bonita Bonita and kind of like 50s R &B. And it was really cool. I really liked it when I saw it. So the good thing about this is that the guy that produced the master gave credit to the songwriters. Speaker 3 (9:06) Ah, okay. Speaker 1 (9:07) Because if he had tried to take credit or done some funny stuff, then we would have had problems because there's AI involved. But now, you know, our writer has been elated at the statements that he's been getting. And I'm like, bonita, bonita. Yeah, it's really fantastic. Speaker 3 (9:26) And that's the thing, because these artists, their publishing is often their retirement. It's supporting the whole family, especially in the Latin music world. And I'm pretty familiar with that. My wife's from Mexico, and we have a lot of Latin music friends. And, you know, it's important. And it's important for every artist because that is their legacy. That is