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Publishers, collectors and digital types agree on road-map for easier multi-territory licensing
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 21 October 2009
A meeting of the European Commission’s Online Roundtable On Music, which does, in fact, really exist, has published a statement signed by European political types, music publishers, collecting societies and digital music retailers stating some agreed aims for the future of pan-European online music licensing.
Which is an achievement, given these peoples have been prone to bitch about each other of late. Especially European commissioners and the publishing collecting societies, the former having accused the latter of anti-competitive practices and cartel culture.
Among the signatories on the statement that stemmed from a meeting on Monday were EMI and Universal’s publishing divisions, collecting societies PRS Form Music, SACEM and STIM, and Nokia and iTunes.
The statement included an agreement to pursue new Europe-wide licensing platforms, a commitment to ensure transparency in royalties collection and distribution, and the “establishment of a working group to create a common framework for the identification and exchange of rights ownership information, in order to make it easier for commercial users to identify the relevant right owners and secure the necessary rights”.
Commenting on the agreement, European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes said, according to Billboard, these words: “European consumers want and deserve better online music offerings. [The] agreement by the Roundtable on core principles represents real progress in this direction. It is the first time that players from various parts of the market have agreed on a common roadmap. I also welcome the concrete steps and commitments that have been made and which should improve the availability of online music for consumers”.
Meanwhile EMI Music Publishing said in a statement: “[This is] a significant step forward in the development of market-based solutions for the licensing of music to the benefit of consumers”.
As previously reported, while music publishers and European collecting societies have been working towards creating more cross-territory licences, the International Confederation Of Societies Of Authors And Composers (or CISAC) has been critical of the European Commission’s various declarations accusing the music royalties sector of being anti-competitive, and have argued that some EC proposals to make the sector more competitive will, in fact, have the opposite effect. I wish I understood all this sufficiently to have an opinion on that.
