PerformingRightSociety
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UK's online music royalties generate more cash than radio for the first time
The UK's Performing Right Society has announced that the cash generated from online music licensing has surpassed that of radio for the first time. The society's 2012 report reveals that digital royalties brought in £51 million ($76.7 million) from stores, ringtones and subscription services, compared to the £47 million ($70.6 million) generated by folks listening to the wireless. The rest of the motherland's music industry, however, has less to celebrate, thanks to big drops in physical media sales, people shunning pubs and clubs as well as big falls in live music events. You know, it's almost as if it won't be long before you'll only be able to buy music online.
iTunes Match not coming to the UK until 2012?
Music collectors in the US will be able to subscribe to Apple's iTunes Match service this fall, but it looks like our friends across the pond will have to wait a little longer before lofting their libraries up to the cloud. According to sources within the British recording industry, licensing negotiations between Apple and the country's major labels have only just begun and likely won't be concluded until 2012. A spokesman for the Performing Right Society, an organization that protects the rights of musicians and songwriters, likened the situation to the launch of iTunes, which only spread to international markets some 14 months after launching in the US. Speaking to the Telegraph, Forrester Research vice president Mark Mulligan echoed these predictions, while offering some insight into the industry's approach: "Apple's cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time... For one thing the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything." Neither Apple nor any of the major labels have commented on the negotiations, but if things drag on we'd be willing to share our cloudy iTunes in exchange for a crack at Spotify.
