Record Industry Proposes Huge Streaming Royalty Fees
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If a new online radio webcasting royalty rate, proposed last week by the Copyright Royalty Board of the US Library of Congress, is ratified and put into effect, online webcasting leader AOL Radio may receive a bill for copyright holders' royalties retroactive to 2006 amounting to $23.7 million, payable to a collective representing the US recording industry. And that's not the half of it.
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I saw an ad in yesterday's NY Times that offered the complete New Yorker magazine archive, including all the cartoons and ads, going back to 1920-something for a bit more than the hard disk would cost. The ad was from J&R, the company that makes the product is Pexagon. $149. Sounds like there might be DRM. I asked for something like this from the music business. A hundred gigs of popular music for $500, all pre-installed on the disk without DRM.  Someone at the New Yorker had this idea too? It's a good one. Bulk content for collector types. Another source of revenue. I want to run my own personal radio station, so having every song of a certain genre or from a certain period makes the diff.
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Small webcasters are crying foul  over new royalty rates they must pay for streaming recordings.
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Three major record labels have inked a deal with a peer-to-peer company to bring paid song downloads to music fans, apparently supporting a technology that the industry has tried to stifle in the past.
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Qtrax, a new legal online file-sharing  service that allows fans to download songs for free, said on  Sunday it will launch with 25 million to 30 million copyrighted  tracks with backing from major labels.
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Blog: New fees don't appear to have stopped many Webcasters from silencing their streams yet, but they're still counting on a formal compromise with the music industry.
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Lime Wire turns tables, charges large recond companies with colluding to create a monopoly.
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A consumer's group said Wednesday it has complained to government regulators about the cost of downloading music from Apple's iTunes system.    British buyers are charged 79 pence, or $1.41, for one track, while customers in France and Germany pay euro0.99, or $1.21...
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The web portal is reportedly in talks with major record labels to begin selling or even giving away unprotected music files.
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Sharp rises in royalty fees could be "fatal" to the nascent web radio industry,  broadcasters warn.
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(InfoWorld) - Just because three major online music retailers bind their music stores to specific portable players doesn't make it acceptable, a Norwegian consumer group leading the charge against Apple's DRM (digital rights management) policy says. "ITunes Music Store and others are unfair to consumers no matter how many download services follow the proprietary approach," wrote Torgeir Waterhouse, a senior advisor at The Norwegian Consumer Council, in response to a letter written by Apple CEO Steve Jobs andÂ posted on the Apple Web siteÂ on Tuesday. Jobs examined why DRM exists and discusses alternatives to the current set-up in his open response to calls for Apple to allow users to buy songs from the iTunes store and play them on any device. Norway's consumer representative hasÂ threatened legal action against AppleÂ for violating Norwegian law by limiting iTunes customers to playing their music only on iPods. Consumer groups in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, and Germany haveÂ joined Norway's complaintÂ against Apple. Jobs points out that Microsoft and Sony also sell music that can only be played on their players, supporting a model that serves customers well with choice and a continuing stream of innovative products. He also suggests that groups like Waterhouse's "redirect their energies" toward convincing the music labels to sell music without DRM, technology that aims to restrict how buyers can copy or use the music. The four biggest record labels forced Apple to employ a proprietary DRM system as a condition of the agreement that allows Apple to sell their music, he said. Ideally, he said, the labels wouldn't require DRM. "This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat," Jobs wrote. While Waterhouse agrees that the record companies carry some fault for the situation, the iTunes music store and others like it are ultimately responsible. "They're still the company that's selling music to the consumers and are responsible for offering a fair deal according to Norwegian law," he said. Still, with his letter, Jobs' appears to have stirred up some additional pressure on the record labels to change their DRM policies. EMusic.com Inc., which claims to be the second largest music download site, only sells DRM-free music from thousands of independent labels. But the site would like be able to sell music from the four biggest labels. "We are hopeful the remaining four will one day join [the independent labels] by licensing their complete catalogs and reap the benefits of consumer demand," David Pakman, president and CEO of eMusic, wrote in a response to Jobs' letter. Even though Jobs didn't hint that a solution might be impending, Waterhouse appeared to see a glimmer of hope. "If this means that Apple is willing to the kick the lock in technology from the [iTunes/iPod] combination this is really good news -- news that should be put into action as soon as possible to bring us all one important step closer to a well functioning digital society," he wrote.
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Blog: Some Webcasters say they're encouraged by recent offers by the record industry group charged with collecting higher fees--including a potential reprieve for some smaller online DJs.--but nothing's set in stone yet.
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The price of music downloads has been a contentious issue among fans in the UK, who are quick to point out the pricing scheme often means that downloading a full album costs more than buying the CD.
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The recording industry, already battered by a surge in recent years of illegal music piracy, increased competition and heavy regulatory scrutiny, is facing a new and potentially costly examination into its practices by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney
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The U.K. is looking to change copyright laws that make it illegal to copy music for personal use and for libraries to archive material under copyright.
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LimeWireÂs counterclaim against the record industry accuses it of a Âmodern conspiracyÂ to aquire a monopoly over copyrighted music.
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Technologies that let people record satellite and Internet radio broadcasts digitally are opening a new front in the recording industry's war on music piracy. This has given the music industry a new problem to worry about.