European iTMS delayed due to record labels

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Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
http://news.independent.co.uk/busine...p?story=418724



Apparently the record labels are having trouble agreeing to terms for a European version of iTMS.



I'm getting farklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The record labels don't like pirating, but can't agree on legal systems. Discuss.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    It would be more truthful sot say it's the ARTISTS who are holding things up. It has to do with their contracts with the labels not allowing certain methods of distribution of their recordings. There is a tendency to only blame record companies which is not always true.
  • Reply 2 of 2
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    It would be more truthful still to label the whole thing a muddle, which the writer for the Independent did (to his credit).



    The article notes disputes over online royalties, which are not necessarily the fault of the artist - for example, record companies asked artists to accept lower royalty rates for CDs than for vinyl, because it was a "new technology." If they're asking the same thing for internet downloads, it's quite understandable that some artists are balking. Similarly, there might be artists making unreasonable demands of their labels, and the labels are balking (from my own knowledge of the industry, that's probably the less common case by a significant margin). There might be cases where both sides are being unreasonable.



    But the overall picture seems to point beyond that to a lack of any overarching system or contractual uniformity, and a large number of contracts that don't make provision for any kind of non-traditional distribution. It's the sort of thing that can only be sorted out with time (and, in the case of royalty negotiations, good faith on both sides of the table).
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