Music Industry Wants Apple, Amazon to Pay Up

From PC World: Music professionals want more money, and now, they're going after online retailers like Apple's iTunes and Amazon to get it. Performing rights groups such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and others believe online retailers need to pay industry professionals for music contained in film and television downloads, thirty second song samples, and radio station streaming, according to CNET. Their rationale for the new fees? All of these instances count as public performances.

iTunes allows you to listen to a short snippet from a song before choosing to buy it, something that's even easier to do in the new iTunes 9. Music professionals have also noticed how easy it is to sample their work in the iTunes Store, and argue that these samples count as public performances. Apple, therefore, owes the rights holder a royalty payment every time someone listens to one of these snippets, they claim.

What the music pros fail to acknowledge is that short samples are a method of enticing a customer to make a further purchase. They are not meant as a way for you to listen to a song for free, but a way to decide whether you want to buy a particular song.

If the music publishers want Apple to fork over money for those snippets, then one of two things will happen: iTunes prices will go up or the thirty-second samples will disappear. Both would result in fewer song sales, and even smaller royalty checks going to the music industry.

View: Article @ Source Site