Are Music Publishing Companies Just Stupid? Or Completley Desperate For Cash

15 years ago view-show 653,895

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So it looks like the genius’s over at BMI/ASCAP have come up with another way to prevent people from buying any music.  They now want to charge people Apple for the 30 second song previews that Apple allows listeners to use on iTunes to figure out if the music is worth buying in the first place.  According to cnet.com

  • ASCAP and BMI have their sights set on collecting fees from three main areas: downloads of music; downloads of films and TV shows, and 30-second song samples. In case you don’t know the lingo of music licensing, here are some important definitions. When music is performed in public, say at radio stations, restaurants, or sports stadiums, groups such as ASCAP and BMI collect fees and pass it on to composers and songwriters. This is different than a “mechanical” licensing fee, which is paid for the right to record or distribute a song (ASCAP and BMI don’t collect mechanical fees).“In the U.S. while we do get paid a mechanical (licensing fee) from ITunes, we are not getting any performance income from Apple yet,” David Renzer, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group, said in interview late last month with entertainment-industry publication, Encore. “(On iTunes) you can stream radio, and you can preview (tracks), things that we should be getting paid performance income for.

I don’t have the greatest comprehension of the music publishing business, but this just makes no sense to me.  They think previewing a song is similar to a nationally televised show using a song within the show.  In the latter situation the artist should definitely be paid, because that show is benefiting from their intellectual property.  However, in iTunes it’s not a corporation benefiting.  It’s the consumer trying to figure out if they want to consume that artist’s music.  So according to ASCAP/BMI‘s logic Macy‘s should have to pay Raulph Lauren money for people to try on clothes in their store.  It makes no sense.  Fuck them.  Shouts to Animal New York for the pic.

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