NMPA's David Israelite with ABKCO's Alisa Coleman in New York last week.

Last week the Association of Independent Music Publishers hosted President and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association, David Israelite, at three of its regional chapters.

Israelite addressed a packed house of each of the three locations in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. He covered an update on the current state of the music publishing industry as well as a proposal on how to re-construct mechanical income processing with streaming.

The proposal introduced a plan that would administer blanket mechanical licensing for streaming. Under this plan, rate determinations would ultimately be based on the "willing buyer, willing seller" standard.

In return, digital services would receive a streamlined licensing process enabled by a new system into which all publishers would pool their song information.

Israelite's proposal would need to be approved by the U.S. Congress. Negotiations on legislation are currently underway between several music industry organizations including ASCAP, NSAI, BMI and more.

Eventually the bill would be sponsored by Congressman Doug Collins, Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Lamar Alexander.

In other news, Desmond Dekker has yet to write a song about us.