Universal Music Publishing To Bypass ASCAP, BMI In Online Licensing
Big changes are coming to the collective licensing of music in the digital domain, as Universal Music Publishing this week announced plans to follow Sony/ATV/EMI's lead and negotiate deals directly with streaming services. According to Billboard, Universal has notified ASCAP and BMI that it will no longer require them to negotiate digital deals on its behalf, with the change coming into effect later this year. "In order to ensure that our songwriters are fairly compensated, we believe the best approach is for us to negotiate directly with these services," Universal Publishing chief Zach Horowitz told Billboard. "For that reason we notified both ASCAP and BMI at the end of last year that we will be withdrawing our digital rights for controlled catalogues at the earliest opportunity. With ASCAP, this will be effective 1 Jul 2013. With BMI we are still working out the effective date." As reported by Complete Music Update, the U.S. wing of EMI Music Publishing was the first American publisher to withdraw some of its rights from the collective licensing system in the digital domain, and recently Sony/ATV - which now owns the EMI publishing business - did the same. By striking a direct deal with Pandora, Sony now retains a larger cut of the royalties available for song rights from the streaming company. [Full story: Complete Music Update] | "Jailbroken" Software Reveals iPad Radio Service In Apple's iOS 6.1 The technosphere was all abuzz this week with the discovery that hidden buttons in Apple's new iOS 6.1 operating system hint at the coming of an Apple radio service intended to compete with Pandora and Spotify. The website 9to5Mac first reported discovering a set of buttons and software references to "radio" in "jailbroken" iPad code that is not found in similarly "broken" iPhones. The buttons' existence is seen as confirmation that Apple continues to ready its much-rumored radio service, despite the company's reported challenges in negotiating online radio deals with the major record labels. Bloomberg recently reported that executives from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp, and Sony Corp's music division met with Apple at the company's Cupertino headquarters to discuss radio plans. The talks are rumored to be focusing on how to share ad revenue, with Apple possibly starting a service in the first quarter of 2013. Interestingly, the iOS radio files also reference a "buy" button, which possibly indicates a service users must authenticate before the radio functionality is enabled. [Full story: 9to5Mac Venture Beat] |
| Amazon Gives ReDigi Competition In Quest To Re-Sell Digital Music Looks like digital resale company ReDigi, which has drawn the ire and lawsuits of digital content creators (including recorded music giant EMI), just got some major competition. As reported by Fast Company, Amazon.com this week announced it has secured a patent for customers to sell their digital items over the electronic marketplace. The patent, called "secondary market for digital objects," covers such items as digital music, e-books, audio, video, computer applications, etc., purchased from an original vendor and stored in a user's personalized data store. Not to be outdone, ReDigi issued a statement claiming that its own digital resale model better protects the rights of artists. "To our knowledge Amazon has never compensated artists, authors, or copyright holders for the secondary sale of their goods, and they have sold billions of dollars worth of them," the statement said. "There is nothing in the Amazon patent that addresses this issue." Editor's note: EMI, which is suing ReDigi for various violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, does not necessarily agree with ReDigi's interpretation of its rights to re-sell digital files. [Full story: Fast Company] |
| South Korea Is World Leader In Digital Music Penetration It's no secret that the recorded music industry is quickly evolving from physical to digital music product, but nowhere is this transition happening more quickly than South Korea. In fact, digital services accounted for 56% of all consumer spending on full-track music in that country in 2012, according to data from IHS iSuppli. The pace of South Korea's transition to digital music (Psy's "Gangnam Style" notwithstanding) leads all other countries, including major economies such as the U.S. (which currently is in second place) and the U.K. (third place). South Korean sales of CDs and other physical formats have been falling steadily for more than two decades, a decline that started far earlier than in most countries, and is largely the result of rampant music piracy. Still, the decline also led to an earlier transition to legal digital product, and by 2006 the country's digital penetration surged to 32% of consumer spending in music, up from 6% in 2005. Between 2004 and 2012, digital helped cause the Korean music market to more than double in value, from $126 million to $274 million (USD). [Full story: Telecompaper] |
Deezer Signs Deal To Bring Digital Music To Smart TVs, But Not In U.S. Music streaming site Deezer reportedly has signed a deal that will put its programming on LG, Samsung, and Toshiba-branded smart TVs. This move will give the company a potential audience of at least 600 million people across 150 nations, although only certain editions of the various manufacturers' TVs will be compatible with the app. One nation where smart TV owners will not be able to access Deezer is the U.S., where the site has yet to launch. Furthermore, Deezer can only be heard on Samsung smart TVs in Europe that were produced from 2011 onwards. The same is true for LG units, while Toshiba will be able to offer the service to its entire 2011+ line in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific, as well as the company's new 2013 smart TV lineup to users all around the globe. Deezer says it still has plans to enter the U.S. market, but thus far is focusing on other global markets. [Full story: Engadget] |
Al Bell Presents American Soul Music ... And American Soul TV
If you're into classic and contemporary Soul, R&B, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Hip-Hop Soul, Rap Soul, and Neo-Soul, we invite you to listen to Al Bell Presents American Soul Music. Former Stax Records owner and Motown Records Group President Al Bell personally has programmed this awesome radio station online, presenting your favorites from the 1960s and '70s [and some '80s], a lot of the best new music that's being released today, and some real gems you haven't heard in a long, long time. Come to www.AlBellPresents.Com and hear it for yourself!
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