The Future of Music Distribution

“Google says it cannot operate YouTube if it has to pay a royalty — however small — every time a video containing music is played. In 2007 the UK’s independent Copyright Tribunal established that a minimum royalty per play was an essential requirement in the licensing of online services. Google fails to recognize this and ascribes little value to music — in spite of a huge increase in music usage on YouTube’s UK service. Royalties are a vital income source for all professional creators and must be preserved to ensure a continued vibrant music industry. We trust that Google will reinstate music on YouTube and pay a fair price for it.”

People will have to understand how unreasonable the royalty demands for streaming are. Sites are being made to pay $0.01 per play - which is A LOT. These sites don’t get 1 cent every time someone sees an ad; they get 10 cents every time someone clicks an add - and that’s not one out of ten times someone listens to a song… It’s much, much less.

It sucks for all parties involved though.

“Consumers ages 13 to 17 spent 13 percent less on music downloads last year, while compact disc purchases tumbled 26 percent, according to a survey by the Port Washington, New York- based researcher.”

“Downloads from peer-to-peer networks fell 6 percent in 2008, NPD said. Meanwhile, 52 percent of teens said they listened to online radio in 2008, up from 34 percent from 2007. Almost half of teens, 46 percent, used social-networking sites to download or stream music, an increase from 26 percent in 2007, NPD said.”

via @hansveld

I guess the Isle of Man has something to prove now.

Now here’s an interesting story. The Australian government apparently owns a certain percentage of a particular ISP (click the link for the details). This ISP has made a huge profit last year and this made the Australian government some money also. ISPs make money by selling bandwith and of course a considerable chunk of that bandwith was used for illegal peer-to-peer filesharing. From this chunk alone, the linked article argues, Australia made $2 billion last year.

They’re doing a good job on keeping everybody happy… The lobbyists, themselves and errr… oh no, not the ISPs and consumers (aka citizens) that risk getting prosecuted.