RIAA VS. MP3.COM: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit against MP3.com, Inc., alleging copyright infringement. The lawsuit charges that MP3.com's My.MP3 program is in violation of copyright law. MyMP3.com users who certify that they own a physical CD title are given access to a streaming (not downloadable) MP3 copy of that title to access and play fro any computer at any time. The RIAA claims that MP3 has no right to duplicate and post titles without paying license fees and/or royalties.
The RIAA is especially upset over the possibility of anyone to use a borrowed CD, which has to be in your computer when first signing up a title to certify the ownership, to gain access to streaming content without actually owning the CD. Michael Robertson, President of MP3.com, counters this argument by saying that anyone can borrow CDs, tapes and videos now and copy them, and there is nothing that the music and movie industry has ever been able to do about it (after bitterly fighting against VHS tapes, the movie industry seems to have found a way to integrate that format into a rich profit source, despite widespread home copying)
Another viewpoint has been offered by Laura Betterly, president of PCDJ.com. "It is important to realize what is really at stake here. This lawsuit is a smoke screen. This is not about piracy; over the past two years as MP3 has become mainstream record sales have consistently increased by approximately 10%. The RIAA is trying to lock down the Internet for the interests of its constituents -- the major labels. Since MP3.com has a database of music buyer's tastes, they can leverage that information. This is an IT (information technology) power struggle in disguise. The RIAA does not care about the rights of consumers or artists. They are really fighting for the same control online as they already have offline. They don't want the Internet to open new doors and eventually end their ability to control artists and their creative works. Musical artists have the most to lose and the most to gain and their future is now in the hands of two interests whose businesses are not centered on making money for artists," continues Betterly. "Just as many of us are discovering new ways to monetize music, the RIAA raises it's greedy head to force Internet companies to pay license fees to record manufacturers who have nothing to do with digital formats. This legal squabble may bring about a legal review of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and a revision of the law could be unfavorable for the artists who actually create the music."
MP3.com seems to be deliberatly positioning itself for a big fight, with all of the free publicity that can generate, and, with all that stock money in their coffers, they can afford to go head-to-head with the big boys. And perhaps this does have more to it than just copyright and piracy issues.
EMAIL LIST SITE: An email list is an important part of networking and informing everyone about your gigs and music. eGroups.com is a website that makes it easy to create and manage an email list. Many musicians using the site also post messages and share lists and information, making the site an potentially useful netwoking site for indie bands and artists. Go to www.egroups.com to sign up and become a memeber.
COUNTRY SONGS WANTED: Here's an email I received. Ali Handal is working with two up-and-coming country artists, helping to find material for their respective demos/albums. The first is a beautiful teenage girl (17) named Rachael, looking for age-appropriate country-pop songs. The other artist is Douglas Callan, and he's looking for country songs in the style of Tim McGraw. Ali will be meeting with both artists in mid-February to share songs with them. If you'd like to submit a song for consideration, please send the lyrics and a tape or CD to: Ali Handal, 8721 Santa Monica Blvd. #112, Los Angeles CA 90069. You can email Ali at alivibe@earthlink.net.
THE ORCHARD & LUCENT TECH: Lucent Technologies has licensed its Lucent Enhanced Perceptual Audio Coder (ePAC) to Internet music distributor The Orchard (www.theorchard.com) for use in encoding the company's 50,000-track music library. The deal will enable ePAC content to be offered to all major online record outlets, including Amazon.com and CD Now, and will make ePAC content available on-demand at participating retail record outlets. The Orchard operates as a wholesaler of Internet music content, supplying branded retail sites with physical goods and premium licensed digital music content on a per-download basis. The deal will permit them to make their entire catalog available for online purchase and download in Lucent's new, high-quality and secure (meaning copy-protected) compression format, purported to sound better than MP3.
GRAMMY NOMINEES FOR SALE: A year ago the music industry was very unsure of the Internet, and the ability to purchase anything but actual CDs online from major artists was avaoided like the plague. But things are obviously changing, with EMUSIC.COM offering downloadable tracks for sale from eight 2000 Grammy-nominated artists. Grammy-nominated tracks represented at the site include "Hold On" by Tom Waits, "Press On" by June Carter Cash, "Straight Up and Down" by Gary Burton, "Wigwam" by Chick Corea and Origin, "Latin Soul" by Pancho Sanchez, and "God Can and God Will" by Dottie Peoples. With single tracks at 99 cents, to full albums at $8.99, and more and more major artists taking the plunge, it seems that, volutarily or kicking and screaming, downoadable music sales on the Internet is becoming more of a reality.
INSIDE THE MUSIC: Billboard magazine's Billboard Talent Net, besides selling web pages to indie bands, features industry professionals and artists answering questions about music and the music industry. Inside The Music (www.billboardtalentnet.com/insidemusic/insidemusic.html) has hosted MOBY, A&R VPs Craig Kallman (Atlantic), David Bendeth (RCA) and Rose Noone (Epic) among others, with live interviews available through their bi-weekly Music Insider Radio Show, courtesy of Dejamuse.com. In February and March the site will feature Chuck D (Public Enemy) and Jellybean Benitez (producer w/Modonna, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson), who will answer questions posted by visitors to the site. Archives of all the past interviews are posted at the site.
MUSICMUSICMUSIC & MOI: RadioMoi (www.rdiomoi.com), from musicmusicmusic.com, is the first Internet webcaster to be licensed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to provide MP3 live streaming music. Labels including V2, Epitaph, Nettwerk, Beggars Banquet and Mammoth have all licensed tracks to the site, which provides non-downloadable streaming MP3 audio on demand. Not only does musicmusicmusic.com pay royalties on the number of track plays, and report every play of every song worldwide, but the labels also get a free streaming show, featuring their artists, that they can make available on their own website. Users are offered a choice of music from a wide variety of genres through programmed shows, called "Instant Radio," or listeners can create their own programs with full interactivity, called "I'm The DJ."
WEBTIPS: Who Owns Your Website?New bands, in negotiating their contracts with record labels, are finding yet another entry in the fine print: the record company gains full rights and control over the band's website and web presence. Indie bands and artists who have spent time and money creating a website, generating new fans and keeping their established fan base informed, not to mention selling CDs and merchandise, are being told that they no longer can control their site or the sales generated from it. And newly signed bands who had never had their own site are being told that they cannot put one up - that's the job of their record company.Many established acts have already had this battle with their record labels, including Goo Goo Dolls, Aerosmith and Rage Against the Machine. While trying to wrestle the conrtol away from established acts, labels are trying to avoid the issue by getting new bands to sign away yet another right before having their deal consummated. What the Internet does best is promote free access to information, and it is the easiest and cheapest way yet to talk to and communicate with anyone anywhere in the world. This is why the Internet continues to grow by leaps and bounds. People want that freedom. If you are about to sign with a label, and they want to control who you are on the Internet, think about what kind of interface you want with your audience. If you're comfortable with the big money packaging associated with the majors, and that works for your musical style or or business plans, then perhaps that is the best choice for you. But if having direct access to your fans, providing them with direct info, selling merchandise, providing alternate tracks and other goodies, and controlling your own image and web presence is important to you, perhaps this should be the deal breaker. We've all heard stories about artists who signed away rights, later to regret it. Will signing away artist's rights to their own website turn out to be the basis for another series of the same type of stories a few years from now? |
© 2000 Music Connection Magazine.