27 ms·

Music publishers: iTunes not paying fair share

3 points by tvon 17y ago

jsm386 17y ago
you're burying the lead, so to speak: Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. Those downloads contain music after all. These groups even want compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  Part of this stems from the amazingly messy rights situation that most music falls under. There are rights to text, rights to music, performance rights, neighbouring rights, sometimes the text gets translated and so on. You have to make deals with many parties if you want to use a piece of music. What I don't get about the hypothetical case against Apple here is that Apple made a deal with the labels, does that not mean that the labels compensate those who were in on the creative side as well ? A single licensing entity would be a great idea from a rights perspective, even the rights organization do not know if they are the right person to represent the rights to many songs / texts. But they can offer indemnification in some cases, which is really weird, they don't own the rights, they'll take your money and if you get sued they indemnify. Great business model. In Europe the market is even more complex, almost every little country has their own licensing agencies, usually pseudo-government. And now the market is 'open' so these compete with each other.
JCThoughtscream 17y ago
There's something decidedly cannibalistic about the business of music rights management. At what point is it simply easier to hire an in-house musician and be done with the mountains of paperwork, days of haggling and thousands of dollars coughed up?
teilo 17y ago
If I were Apple, I would say, "Hmmm... Nah. How about we keep selling your music just the way we are now." I mean, what are they going to do about it? They are always welcome to pull out of iTunes. But, strangely, they don't want to do that. I wonder why not?
jleyank 17y ago
If I can't hear it, I can't buy it. Yeah, there are bands I would buy without question, and if enough people whose opinion I trust agree... But otherwise, I'm going to be somebody they can't sell to. And no, I'm not making micropayments to get stuff to decide to make macropayments.

3 points by tvon 17y ago

you're burying the lead, so to speak: Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. Those downloads contain music after all. These groups even want compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples.

jacquesm 17y ago
Part of this stems from the amazingly messy rights situation that most music falls under. There are rights to text, rights to music, performance rights, neighbouring rights, sometimes the text gets translated and so on. You have to make deals with many parties if you want to use a piece of music. What I don't get about the hypothetical case against Apple here is that Apple made a deal with the labels, does that not mean that the labels compensate those who were in on the creative side as well ? A single licensing entity would be a great idea from a rights perspective, even the rights organization do not know if they are the right person to represent the rights to many songs / texts. But they can offer indemnification in some cases, which is really weird, they don't own the rights, they'll take your money and if you get sued they indemnify. Great business model. In Europe the market is even more complex, almost every little country has their own licensing agencies, usually pseudo-government. And now the market is 'open' so these compete with each other.

JCThoughtscream 17y ago

There's something decidedly cannibalistic about the business of music rights management. At what point is it simply easier to hire an in-house musician and be done with the mountains of paperwork, days of haggling and thousands of dollars coughed up?

teilo 17y ago

If I were Apple, I would say, "Hmmm... Nah. How about we keep selling your music just the way we are now." I mean, what are they going to do about it? They are always welcome to pull out of iTunes. But, strangely, they don't want to do that. I wonder why not?

jleyank 17y ago

If I can't hear it, I can't buy it. Yeah, there are bands I would buy without question, and if enough people whose opinion I trust agree... But otherwise, I'm going to be somebody they can't sell to. And no, I'm not making micropayments to get stuff to decide to make macropayments.