In the music industry, everybody is out for money these days. The artists want their fair share, and so the RIAA is out to make sure that they do, In addition to the artists are the composers and songwriters who want their fair share of money as well, and so the ASCAP is out to make sure that they do. As we’ve seen in the past, often times the legal system is involved when an organization like the RIAA feels that artists haven’t been paid like they should be. One of the latest instances in the music industry involves the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) who requested that AOL, Real Networks, and Yahoo pay-up to compensate the authors and composers of music streamed from those sites. The judge ruled in their (the ASCAP’s) favor and now the aforementioned companies will be required to pay $100 million.
As you can imagine, the ASCAP is very happy by the judge’s ruling, and their chief executive John LoFrumento said, “The court’s decision is a victory for songwriters, composers, and publishers, and something they have been looking forward to for a long period.” AOL, Real Networks, and Yahoo haven’t given in quite yet, they plan to fight this one. The interesting part is that the money they would have to pay is what the ASCAP says is owed from all the way back between 2002 and now.
So what does this mean for consumers? Well, News.com speculates that this means companies like Yahoo would have to raise their prices on music in order to be able to have enough money to pay the music industry as they want to be paid. They say, “If the final fee structure looks anything like what is prescribed in the judge’s written opinion, RealNetworks, Yahoo, and AOL would likely have to raise prices. It may also mean that the cost of doing business for anyone streaming music over the Web just went up.” At the end of the day, consumers lose.
Thanks for tip Omar!
Source: TechCrunch
Enjoyed the post? Subscribe to our feed to get a daily dose of CyberNet!
Related Posts:
- Adobe and Macromedia Finally Together
- OS & Browser Market Share History
- Apple Commands “Premium” Computer Market
- Lookup Unknown Files
- Apple Patches 25 Mac OS X Security Flaws
Are MySpace, Imeem, and Last.fm next? Of course not, they already made deals with the major record labels.
This is not a victory for artists; this is a victory for labels. Now, these same artists will get pennies in royalties from their labels, instead of, being out right robbed by Yahoo, AOL, RealNetworks, and others. When will the exploitation of artists on the internet end?
I just hope the amount demanded was reasonable and will stay reasonable.
as Ryann rightly said, this is an other measure to make the labels fat not the artists. the hypocracy is that the labels always argue “in the name of”. it’s time for more structures like http://www.freibank.com which was founded by Einstuerzende Neubauten, headed by its ex-member Mark Chung, and has develeoped into a reasonable force for many “independents”.
as long as RIAA, ASCAP et al. keep on with their phony “in the name of” agendas, they themselves are the main supporters of piracy, economically and “morally”, and makes it hard for anybody with 5 grams of brain and a sense for justice to argue against it. ok then …
Ryann, I do not believe this has anything to do with the major record labels and thus doesn’t have to do with the artists themselves. This time it’s not about the RIAA defending record labels and artists, it’s about the ASCAP defending those who write the music for the artists - the composers and songwriters.