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EU investigating major labels’ digital deals
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 7 April 2015
The European Commission is probing the deals done between the major record companies and streaming music services, it emerged last week, as sources told financial media that questionnaires had been sent to the majors by EU officials.
The precise nature of the investigation isn’t clear, though it is thought it is looking at all the big digital deals done in music, rather than focusing on the arrangements between the record companies and any one digital service provider.
The questionnaires have been sent as debate around the so called ‘digital single market’ – discussed here by IMPALA chief Helen Smith – becomes increasingly vocal in Brussels, putting the policies of both tech firms and content owners in Europe under the spotlight.
Given it’s almost impossible to launch a mass-market streaming service without both Sony Music and Universal Music on board, EU officials may be considering whether the majors are exploiting their market dominance by making big upfront demands of new players in the streaming space.
Though the labels will almost certainly point to the high number of platforms they have licensed in recent years and that they increasingly licence on a multi-territory basis, territorial restrictions on copyright material within the European Union being a key consideration in the digital single market debate.
