Wippit legal P2P service signs a major contract with EMI

February 19, 2004

The legal P2P music service offered by Wippit has signed a major contract
with the major music company EMI.
Wippit originally started off signing on about 200 less well-known
independent record labels of which most could not afford radio air play time or
afford to market their own CDs.
They currently have over 180,000 subscribers.

Unlike most legal download services, Wippit charge a fixed Â£30 a year
subscription for a year's unlimited downloading on its P2P network. This network works similar to other P2P
networks other than it only allows its own watermarked music to be shared on it
and pays the appropriate label based on each track download. The labels can opt to distribute their
music either MP3 for reduced cost or DRM protected WMA audio for better
security. Wippit has been given
access to 97% of EMI's catalogue and expects to gradually offer these tracks to
its subscribers over time similar to how BSkyB gradually offers new
movies rather than all in one go.

Most
European music download services run by OD2 have taken on a greedy approach by
selling tracks at 99p per download rather than the dollar conversion, thus
selling tracks at around an 80% hike over the US price. Some do not even offer a full album
discount thus downloading a 20 track album would set one back Â£20 (~$ 36). This works out over double that of
purchasing the original CD for Â£8.99 at most online stores such as CD-WOW! and
Amazon. Quakester2000 submitted the
following news via our news
submit :

UK online music service Wippit has added a second music major to its roster, hot on the heels of becoming the first P2P system to attract the attention of the industry's big boys.

The company this week signed
its second major contract having already shaken hands with EMI. It says it
has two more deals at contract stage.

Wippit has survived the last
few years on indie music only, signing 200 of the less well-known
independent record labels and only now having the credibility to open
negotiations with the big guys.

Blowing bubbles

Wippit CEO Paul Myers burst a
few of the bubbles about online music services and cast some doubt over
just why it is that Apple iTunes and Roxio are having trouble tying up
European rights with their record labels.

"If I can do it, and get
world-wide online rights, then I don't see what's holding them up. It's
certainly not the red tape and bureaucracy of individual European
countries, like they say it is."

The real problem is likely to
be a combination of greed and a worry that the European market will not be
easily shaken from its piratical ways. Most online music services in
Europe that offer a "price per track" system like Apple, are being
encouraged to set this at 99 pence rather than 99 cents.

Read the full source article here.

It will
be interesting to see how well Wippit will do with taking on other major labels
also. At least they have taken on a
realistic approach of dealing with legal online music distribution as well as
compensating labels and artists for their work. This approach allows the consumer to
enjoy the benefits of downloading music without risking legal issues with the
music industry. Unfortunately I
cannot see the RIAA letting their music being distributed like this if they keep
insisting on their greedy fixed price per track.

Feel free to read and discuss about file sharing and legal issues on our
Music Downloads, P2P & Legal Issues
Forum.

Source: The Register