musiclicensing
Latest
Spotify might delay album releases for 'free' users
Spotify's deadlock with three of the largest music labels could soon come to an end. According to the Financial Times, the streaming company has agreed to 'window' important album releases to keep them on side. It would mean select records are only available to premium members for a period of time, incentivising subscriptions and boosting the revenue that trickles through to labels. The FT says nothing has been signed just yet, but stress talks have "picked up considerably" since the concession was made.
EU to ease licensing rules for iTunes, other digital music stores
The European Union is looking to make it easier for Apple to sell music across the entire EU at once. Currently, music copyrights are issued on a country-by-country basis, so users can only purchase songs from their home country. But an effort to promote licensing across the entire bloc has prompted a proposed change in the rules that targets how royalty-collection societies conduct their business, Bloomberg reports. While iTunes has been in some parts of the European Union for years, it only reached countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 2011. The blame for the slow rollout is placed on onerous music licensing.
