Today the music industry has announced a "one-stop"
international license for online radio broadcasters. With this move the music
industry hopes to encourage the rise of legitimate online music services.
Previously the online broadcasters, or Webcasters, had to secure approval from a lot of national collection
agencies but this is now history:
 The International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global trade body representing major and
independent music labels, said it expects collection agencies in 30 to 40
countries to sign up to the single license agreement by the end of the
year.
"Basically, what we've done here is to provide the Webcasters the
facility to obtain the license fee from one society with a respect to a
multiple of territories. Frankly, we've done it with the societies mainly
to encourage legal services," said Lauri Rechardt, senior legal advisor
for IFPI.
Rechardt added that while the approval process has been streamlined,
the old fee structure is still intact. Webcasters will still have to pay a
national body a fee for songs broadcast into each individual country.
Webcasters have argued that until the number of licensing fees is
reduced, the nascent broadcasting sector will never gain the critical
commercial mass of its over-the-air cousins.
Collection groups, music labels, and Webcasters have been working to
resolve the matter in an effort to stamp out the rise of pirate
broadcasters and rampant song downloading that has so hobbled the
recording industry. |
The article adds that the license agreement is for radio-style
broadcasts only. Internet firms must still secure individual licensing
agreements to sell permanent song downloads to
consumers.
Source: Yahoo! News
