Music Publishers: “Apple Should Pay for iTune’s Song Samples”

Group that owns or administers over 2 million copyrights is angry that it doesn’t get paid each time customers of Apple’s iTunes play a 30-second track preview before purchase.

If anybody is still wondering why the music industry is doing so horrible these days, as if suing your customers for thousands of dollars and turning them off from buying music ever again wasn’t enough, then they need look no further than the recent comments of David Renzer, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG).

UPMG owns or administers over 2 million copyrights and represents many of the world’s top songwriters and catalogs including: U2, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, 50 Cent, Mariah Carey, R. Kelly, Coldplay, Nelly, Juan Gabriel, Ciara, Dave Grohl, Prince, Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, Britney Spears, Beastie Boys, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Paul Simon, Henry Mancini, Christina Aguilera and Linkin Park.

Renzer’s upset that customers on Apple’s iTunes are able to stream radio or play a 30-second song sample and UPMG without having to pay UMPG royalties.

From his interview with Encore:

Yes, we are getting paid from ITunes but the amount of income that we are getting, and the performing rights societies are getting on the digital side still remains low. It is growing but from a very low base. This is a big concern for our industry too.

Don’t forget that in the U.S. while we do get paid a mechanical from ITunes, we are not getting any performance income from Apple yet. Even though you go on iTunes and can do lots of things other than download a mechanical (track). You can stream radio, and you can preview (tracks), things that we should be getting paid performance income for.

I suppose it’s not terribly shocking for those of us who’ve been watching the music industry behave so irrationally and shortsighted for over a decade now, but sometimes it does manage to surprise us.

For no matter what performance fee they charge to preview or stream music the costs will be pushed to customers who will therefore be less inclined to listen to and buy new music.

UPMG also wants a performance fee for movie and TV show downloads even though there is no public performance.

The Digital Media Association (DiMA) disagrees with these arguments and calls it a form of “double dipping.”

“Songwriters and music publishers are paid fairly and fully for digital downloads when reproduction rights and distribution rights are licensed, it says. “There is simply no justification for characterizing downloads as performances or for demanding additional royalties, which is why ASCAP’s persistent efforts have been rejected so many times by U.S. Government agencies and the district court in this case.”

Johnathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association (DiMA), says that these people are just worried that their business model is changing as the world goes digital and they turn to watching or listening to content on-demand at home.

“These guys are afraid that the business model is shifting away from public performances to a model of private performances,” Potter told cNet. “This is a turf battle. They are saying, ‘The songwriters aren’t getting paid.’ Baloney. Songwriters are getting paid. They’re paid sync rights and (mechanical) rights. They aren’t getting paid for the public performance in a download because there is no public performance in a download.”

It’s sad some in the music industry would try to ruin Apple’s iTunes, the only real successful online music store in existence, since it’s making them a bundle in a world where illegal file-sharing is so prevalent and music has arguably become a free commodity, but then again, I’d expect nothing less.

Stay tuned.

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