national music publishers' association

YouTube, music publishers settle copyright beef

A group of music publishers that joined a class action lawsuit filed against YouTube in 2007 have reached a settlement with Google's video-sharing site.

The National Music Publishers Association as well as individual music-publishing companies, such as Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, the Harry Fox Agency, and Murbo Music Publishing, joined a class action lawsuit filed against Google by The Football Association Premier League among others.

The suit--which accused YouTube of encouraging users to upload pirated video clips of TV shows, films, and music videos--was filed shortly after Viacom filed a copyright complaint against YouTube and Google. For efficiency, Viacom and the class action were reviewed by the court simultaneously even though they were separate complaints.

"As a result of this resolution," the publishers wrote in a statement, "music publishers will have the opportunity to enter into a license agreement with YouTube and receive royalties from YouTube for musical works in videos posted on the site."

Thanks to the agreement, music publishers can license Google the right to sync their music with videos posted by YouTube users and YouTube will pay the royalties. The parties involved didn't disclose the complete terms of the agreement.

That's nice but what's important here is that YouTube executives continue to put their copyright troubles behind them. The Web's top video-sharing service was once packed with pirated content but the service built a filter system and now most of the top film studios and TV networks consider the site to be swept clean. … Read more

Apple, Google music clouds can't snub publishers

NEW YORK--Those in digital music should take notice of the olive branches being extended by David Israelite, the president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association.

Israelite advised NMPA members Tuesday in Manhattan during the trade group's annual conference that it was in their best interest to help legal music sites thrive, Billboard reported. To do this, Israelite wants to streamline the process of licensing rights, a time-consuming task for Internet services that has frustrated managers from SpiralFrog to Apple to Google. Still, Israelite's comments about bridge building with the tech community could surprise some there.

For … Read more

Delays in iTunes song samples cause confusion

Apple has finally rolled out the 90-second samples on songs that are longer than 2.5 minutes, sold in the United States, and that iTunes has managed to equip with the longer preview.

Some bloggers and iTunes users have questioned why longer previews don't accompany every song. As first reported in August by CNET, Apple approached the top four recording companies last summer about the longer samples that iTunes users can hear to test-drive songs before buying. Researchers say that longer song samples stimulate sales.

According to several music industry sources, Apple has only acquired licenses to the longer … Read more

Apple confirms move to 90-second iTunes samples

Longer song samples are finally on their way to iTunes.

An Apple spokesman confirmed for CNET this evening a report by Symphonic Distribution, a digital music distributor, that iTunes would soon be extending the length of song samples from 30 seconds to 90 seconds for songs that are at least two-and-a-half minutes in length. Shorter songs would continue to offer the 30-second sample.

Apple notified the top music labels and other business partners in the music industry about the change today.

The samples are, of course, the snippets of music that Apple offers to iTunes users so they can determine … Read more

Why iTunes song samples are still only 30 seconds

Apple's plan to extend the length of song samples doesn't appear to be dead.

"We are in active negotiations with Apple," about the length of song samples, said Hanna Pantle, a spokeswoman for Broadcast Music Inc., (BMI) one of the performing-rights organizations that collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. She declined to provide any details.

At BMI's rival, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), a spokesman declined to comment. A source close to the company, however, said Apple has a license with ASCAP that doesn't appear to put … Read more

iTunes song-sample plan runs into music publishers

A trade group representing music publishers and songwriters informed Apple on Tuesday that the company could not go ahead with a plan to extend the length of iTunes song samples without the publishers permission.

On Monday, CNET reported Apple had plans to boost the amount of time iTunes users would be given to sample a song from 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Sources with knowledge of the plan said Apple could announce the song samples as early as Wednesday during the company's media event in San Francisco. Apple had already reached agreements to extend song samples with the four … Read more

LimeWire faces new copyright suit

A group of music publishers on Wednesday filed a copyright complaint in federal court against LimeWire's parent company and founder Mark Gorton, according to documents obtained by CNET.

Eight members of the National Music Publishers' Association, including the publishing arms of the four largest recording companies, were named as plaintiffs in the suit. They accuse Lime Group, parent of software maker Lime Wire, and Gorton with "copyright infringement on a massive scale."

The suit comes as LimeWire, the nation's largest file-sharing service, is trying to convince U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood not to shut down the service. … Read more

Music publishers: 'Copyright should be technology neutral'

Composers, music publishers, and songwriters have told federal lawmakers that regardless of whether music is distributed to consumers via TV, DVDs or digital download, they need legislative help to ensure they get their fair share.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a story about how some of these groups want iTunes and other Web music retailers to pay performance fees for downloads of TV shows and films. They also want online music stores to cough up fees for 30-second song previews. Those revelations didn't go over well with many techies.

But to get a better understanding of what the artists … Read more

Royalty rate doesn't change for Apple, music retailers

The Copyright Royalty Board on Thursday froze the rate that digital-music stores such as iTunes and RealNetworks' Rhapsody must pay music publishers.

The three-member board that sets statutory copyright licenses e-mailed the Digital Media Association (DiMA), the National Music Publishers' Association, Apple, and other download stores with its decision to keep the royalty rate at 9.1 cents a song. The board also set the same rate for CDs and established a 24-cent rate for ringtones. The decision is the first time the board has established royalty rates for digital downloads. The rates are set for the next five years. … Read more