Music

Intellectual Property / Music / Web — No Comments
12
Dec 11

Grooveshark Continues to Post Unlicensed Music (Over & Over & Over)

Great article here from the Guardian about an artist who has been fighting with Grooveshark to get them to finally stop giving her music away for free (without her permission) – once and for all.

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t go so well for the musician.

It started when I tried searching for songs I’ve cowritten. Amazingly, I found almost every song I’ve ever released – even songs in Swedish. Now, to clarify, Grooveshark does not have a licence to feature any of these songs, and they don’t pay me anything. It’s essentially a filesharing site, with users uploading music libraries to be streamed by other users. Much like YouTube, Grooveshark says its service is legal as they have a DMCA takedown procedure in place.

via Behind the music: Why won’t Grooveshark remove my music? | Music | guardian.co.uk.

Intellectual Property / Music / Web — No Comments
21
Nov 11

Internal Emails from Grooveshark: Ask for Permission Later

Had they bothered to read my book, Starving the Artist, this wouldn’t have really been all that shocking. I have an entire section on Grooveshark – including public tweets they sent out to me that basically said the exact same thing years ago.


Judging from internal emails, Grooveshark opted for forgiveness. In a April 27, 2010 email to Sina Simantob, a Escape Media Group director, Andrew B. Lipsher, then a partner at private equity firm Greycroft Partners, explained that he understands "the ask forgiveness and not permission strategy. It is a hard one to swallow as an investor knowing what I know, but the labels have been so horrible and naïve that I think it is the only one that makes sense."

via Internal Emails in Grooveshark/Universal Case Show Grooveshark Opted to Post First, Ask for Permission Later | Billboard.biz.

Intellectual Property / Music / Web — No Comments
15
Apr 11

Ad-Supported Music Continues to Fail – Just ask Spotify

Told you so.

Ultimately, we’ve all been stuck in some collaborative hallucination believing ad-supported music can work. It’s yet another indictment of the ad-supported model — the one Last.fm and Pandora have found problematic. Many have tried, yet nobody has really managed to make it work, because advertising isn’t enough to pay licensing fees across millions and millions of on-demand tracks.

via Spotify Shift Signals the End for Ad-Supported Music: Tech News and Analysis «.

Intellectual Property / Music / Web — No Comments
11
Apr 11

Mi2N.com – Music Publishers Support Congressional Call For Enforcement Tools To Combat Digital Theft

“Criminal activity online is everyday eroding the work of America’s economy and workforce,” said NMPA President and CEO David Israelite. “Songwriters and music publishers stand with the millions of Americans whose work depends on our nation’s founding principle of intellectual property rights to support efforts to address this illegal activity.

via Mi2N.com – Music Publishers Support Congressional Call For Enforcement Tools To Combat Digital Theft.

Intellectual Property / Music / Technology — No Comments
6
Apr 11

Grooveshark Pulled from Android Marketplace

Grooveshark is gone from the Android Market. The popular music streaming service was removed from the Market yesterday because it violates Google’s terms of service. The exact terms were not revealed, but CNET notes that Grooveshark’s ongoing dispute with record companies over music streaming – and Google lawyer Kent Walker testifying before the U.S. House Judiciary committee on copyright violations – may have had something to do with Grooveshark’s removal.

via Androinica » Grooveshark gets ganked from Google Android Market. Should Amazon Cloud be nervous?.

So here’s my question: Does this even matter? Since the Android Marketplace is not the only place you can get apps for an Android device, this may make little or no difference in the long term. In fact, from my experience so far, the Amazon App Store is a superior experience to the Google Android Marketplace.  Obviously Amazon can sell / give away their cloud player app through their own marketplace, right?

Either way, what happens to Grooveshark is of little bother to me. They’ve been notorious for breaking copyright – as I explained in my book, Starving the Artist.

Intellectual Property / Music / Technology / Web — No Comments
3
Apr 11

Music Industry to Force Licenses for Amazon’s Cloud Music?

As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a huge proponent of intellectual property rights. This, however, gives me some pause.

It appears that the major music labels are upset with Amazon for not securing licenses for their cloud music player system. I honestly don’t really understand what the issue is here – it’s really no different from having a portable hard drive you take with you everywhere you go, is it?

Amazon argues that Cloud Drive and Cloud Player are just services that let users upload and play back their own music, just like “any number of existing media management applications.” After all, licenses shouldn’t be necessary for users to play their own music, right? The labels seem to disagree — they expressed shock following Amazon’s announcement, with a Sony Music representative implying that the company was looking into legal options.

via Music Industry Will Force Licenses on Amazon Cloud Player — or Else | Epicenter | Wired.com.

And by the way, if you’re looking for a cheaper solution that so far isn’t under any scrutiny I’m aware of, check out Winamp Orb. Basically it allows you to make your music collection on your home computer available for you to access anywhere. I’m assuming it is a bit more complicated for casual users than Amazon’s cloud is though.

Music — No Comments
18
Mar 11

SoundExchange Paid Out $252 Million In 2010 | Billboard.biz

As digital services like Pandora and satellite radio increase in popularity, the payouts are getting bigger. In 2010 the average payment for artists increased 80% to $2,800 last year. The average payment to rights holders rose 39% to over $14,000.

via SoundExchange Paid Out $252 Million In 2010 | Billboard.biz.

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