Lack Of A Centralized Song Database Stymies Digital Licensing.
A year after the Copyright Royalty Board set rates for subscription downloads and interactive streaming, digital licensing and payment accounting is still proving to be a trying task in the U.S. marketplace.
Not surprisingly, the lack of a common database containing metadata for all songs is still a big obstacle, even though it should be easier to create one in the United States than in Europe, where there are more than two dozen performance and reproduction rights societies.
It’s a topic that weighed heavily on the minds of panelists at a National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers’ Salon Series event held Feb. 22 in New York. The gathering was the second in a planned series of industry get-togethers that NARM is holding to address issues of concern to member companies.
The discussion “validated the urgent need for the industry to work collaboratively on streamlining business practices and adopting operational standards that will take costs out of the system and help advance the digital marketplace,” NARM president Jim Donio said in a statement.
Digital service providers have to license music and pay royalties directly to publishers for music consumed through subscription services and ad-supported Web sites. As a result, the lack of a central database continues to stymie the marketplace, NARM panelists said. Read the rest of this entry »
