The Future of Music Distribution

So Now Everything is Googles Fault

“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.

Last.fm says: "German, English, American? No? Pay up!"

Not sure this is the right way to go about it. People are not used to paying for this service, nor are they used to paying for radio.

I expect they’ll lose a lot of users who will then illegally download the music they’re looking for, instead of playing it via a trackable system so royalties can be paid out and data handed over to artists.

Sad.

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“Reports had claimed that Eminem wanted over £800,000 from Universal and that he argued money from iTunes and other download services should fall under “licensing” agreements in his contract not “distribution”.

If the court case did, in fact, go ahead, it would set a precedent for other artists as it is exploring the definition of digital royalties.

At present, when a song or ringtone is bought online, the artist receives a royalty. The amount of this royalty is initially decided following a contract between labels and artists. For many artists, however, that digital royalty is not clearly defined, and, added to that, many of the contracts predate the upturn of digital music sales.”

— Signs of a changing media landscape: Eminem accused of suing Universal Music over unpaid royalties (UK Telegraph)

“Extraordinarily, it is in the US, the world’s largest music market, that has traditionally championed intellectual property rights, that performers and producers have no rights to be paid when their music is broadcast over the radio.”

Clipped from IFPI’s Digital Music Report 2009.

“Extraordinarily, it is in the US, the world’s largest music market, that has traditionally championed intellectual property rights, that performers and producers have no rights to be paid when their music is broadcast over the radio.”

Clipped from IFPI’s Digital Music Report 2009.