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The owners of Myspace\u2019s image from musically.comears will have been burning this morning, during a Midem press conference at which independent labels put the boot in to the relaunched social music service. <\/p>\n
The owners of Myspace\u2019s image from musically.comears will have been burning this morning, during a Midem press conference at which independent labels put the boot in to the relaunched social music service. <\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
At issue: the company\u2019s decision to not renew the old Myspace\u2019s deal with indie rights agency Merlin, telling labels that if their music was on its site, it must have been uploaded by users, so will require DMCA takedown notices to remove it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an impression, a complacence and I would suggest an arrogance which is offensive, that you do deals with the majors, and the independent sector should be somehow grateful for the promotional value that these services will apparently bring to your artists and to you,\u201d said Alison Wenham, president of trade body WIN, and chairman and CEO of AIM. \u201cIf you follow that to its logical conclusion, all your activities would be promotional benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hence new Myspace, which launched last week without licences in place with Merlin, the global rights licensing agency for independent labels. When asked, Myspace told journalists that it had decided not to renew its deal with Merlin, and that labels would have to send takedowns for any music left on the service, and allegedly uploaded by fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely repugnant to the spirit of cooperation and the balancing of interests commercially that this should have been Myspace\u2019s response,\u201d said Wenham.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sick and tired of seeing services that come to market, do deals with majors because they have to, then come to independent labels and expect that we will expect secondary treatment, or promotional benefit\u2026 This has to come to an end, and it has to come to an end here and now\u2026 There\u2019s an argument to suggest we should be paid first, and paid more.\u201d<\/p>\n
More? Wenham suggested that indie labels are taking disproportionately more risks on bringing new artists to market than major labels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe that new Myspace is owned 40% by the majors, and also Justin Timberlake has a small percentage. So is this the kind of treatment one would expect from companies who would go after Grooveshark in a heartbeat, but would not go after a company in which they own a 40% stake?\u201d<\/p>\n
Wenham talked about the way major labels have stepped up their piracy takedown notices \u201cexponentially\u201d to Google in recent months, and pointed out that this is. \u201cWhat we are seeing is that pirates, and those who would make a living out of music without paying for it are moving to what they would see as easy pickings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t want to be here at Midem and in this business to be paper merchants, to be takedown notice experts\u2026 I see a rather pernicious sideways slide towards independent content, because they are beginning to do a better job of issuing takedown notices for major-label repertoire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Glass of Glassnote Records was also at the event, and was asked about his label\u2019s act Mumford & Sons\u2019 status as one of the most-played tracks on new Myspace. It seems they\u2019re unlicensed on the site too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a sense of arrogance in this company\u2026 We\u2019re just in shock over this,\u201d he said. \u201cMumford & Sons is on the top of my mind to\u2026 unfortunately the paperwork of the takedown, we\u2019re going to have to start all that stuff\u2026 I will go to management and the artist, and we\u2019ll be discussing this by tomorrow\u2026 This is a bad one. This is a real bad one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wenham talked approvingly of Spotify as a service that does have all the repertoire \u2013 indies and majors \u2013 and which licensed independents through Merlin from day one.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur market share on Spotify is over 15% and rising, so it works extremely well,\u201d said Wenham. \u201cWhen you\u2019re honourable, when you do business honourably, you become successful\u2026 You can\u2019t abuse copyrights using weak arguments like safe harbour and DMCA.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glass praised Deezer too. \u201cIt is really doing it the right way, and slowly. It is setting a really nice tone,\u201d he said. He also praised US satellite radio provider Sirius XM as a great partner for indies.<\/p>\n
Beggars Group founder Martin Mills was at the press conference, although he had to duck out early \u201cto meet Google\u201d \u2013 an apology delivered with a chuckle, following his Midem speech yesterday. He did provide a statement in the joint AIM, A2IM, AIR and WIN press release that was given to journalists at the conference though:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would expect a service that is selling itself on the discovery and promotion of new musical talent would understand the value of the music that independent labels release, and we would also expect that a service that is jointly owned by the major labels would respect our rights rather than hide behind the DMCA in exactly the same manner as pirates and companies like Grooveshark,\u201d said Mills\u2019 statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appears that neither of these assumptions are true, and that the new owners of Myspace just see independent music as a free ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: MySpace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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