It's Time To Completely Overhaul Music Licensing!
20 September 2006
This small article notes that licensing is a complicated and annoying process and how completely inappropriate it is for the kind of mass internet media events we are entering into.
As she notes, the computer technology to bill anything is trivial, but the laws and business practices are a mess.
There is money being made through advertising and yet the music licensing is not being paid simply because the procedure for payment is obsolete and ill-defined. And so the artists don't get paid. Everybody gushes about what great exposure the artists are getting (but no money), and yet billions of dollars DOES trade hands.
Its been commented recently that YouTube is a huge copyright violation waiting to be challenged. Their terms state that the uploader is responsible, and most of us are happy to have free bandwith; so we all got bought off.
In an ideal world (easily obtainable with the technology and delivery systems we have) somebody could have a YouTube hit and the composer (if its the performer or somebody else) would see money flooding in within days.
Instead its just stock speculation and acquisition chatter about YouTube itself. Billions of dollars and the artists get nothing. Why ? Because the Music labels and ((RoyaltyOrganizations|performance royalty organizations)) still work on Ed Sullivan era laws.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=48465
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=48465
