The mixtape wars keep on: MySpace bans Project Playlist

MySpace has officially blocked access to embedded widgets from Project Playlist, one of the myriad start-ups that lets members create music playlists and share them with friends.

This could come across negatively because MySpace runs MySpace Music, a service that competes with Project Playlist. And that's probably why the News Corp.-owned MySpace is making it very clear that it has blocked Project Playlist because of complaints from major music labels.

"MySpace is an open platform that welcomes all developers to build rich and legitimate applications for its global community," according to a statement from the company. "We take copyright issues very seriously and our goal is to help developers build a substantial business by creating an environment that respects rights holders and protects their content."

The statement continued: "MySpace has received notices of infringement about Project Playlist at different times from several of the major music companies currently suing Project Playlist. Per our policy of taking very seriously the requests of rights holders to block access to third party sites that are believed to be infringing, we have evaluated the requests of the major music companies and determined that it is in our best interest not to allow Project Playlist widgets on MySpace, and effective immediately, we will no longer be allowing these widgets within the MySpace platform."

Indeed, Warner Music, EMI, and Universal Music Group have ongoing lawsuits against Project Playlist, which recently hired former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta as its CEO. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)--itself going through a major transition as it ends legal action against individual file-sharers and is rumored to be on the verge of budget cuts--also sued Project Playlist this past spring.

The fourth major label, Sony BMG, has been negotiating with the start-up.

The labels' complaint against Project Playlist was industrywide, not restricted to MySpace. However, Facebook, hasn't blocked Project Playlist widgets. Whether that's due to Van Natta's Facebook connection (he's also an investor in Project Playlist), or to anything else, is unclear. Because litigation is involved, neither party is commenting.

In the digital music industry, 2008 really was the year of the playlist. Streaming music companies took off, and improved social-network sharing features made it easy to swap your favorite music lineups with your friends.

Despite its rampant and well-documented problems, the music industry's muscle has been what's steering the direction of the movement. For example, the two highest-profile "mixtape" start-ups, Mixwit and Muxtape, both shut down amid the threat of legal action that their young founders didn't want to handle. Meanwhile, bigger companies like Imeem and iLike, both of which have negotiated with the record labels and struck deals, have fared better--despite a number of rumors that Project Playlist wants to merge with Imeem.

As for MySpace, the labels have all invested in MySpace Music, so it's understandable that the social network would be quick to respond to its concerns.

[Spartan_458]

Grr.....everything good gets ruined by the music industry.

[TWBuddha]

I think it's ridiculous; the recording industry isn't seeing the big picture. I understand going after those who download via torrents; no matter how you spin it, it's stealing. The online playlists, though, are promotional tools. You don't own it; you're just exposed to it. Speaking for myself, I know I browse playlists, listen to songs and if I come across stuff I like... I open iTunes and buy it. It's a great way to hear new artists. I'm stunned. I must have spent over $200 in the past few months buying tracks I heard through that service.

[bubazoo]

I agree with you completely TWBuddha. The thing is, whenever these lawsuits pop up, who is it that look like the bad guys in the public eye here? not the RIAA, but the Music Artists, because people think "oh the artists are the ones sueing me, so I'm not gonna buy any of their music ever again just out of pure SPITE and tell all my friends not to either" when its the RIAA thats the problem, not the artsts. There being lied to by the RIAA just as we are. They are lying to consumers, lying to the artists, lying to everyone else just to make a quick buck for themselves. They get the artists to think people are stealing music, taking money from their pockets. when thats not what consumers are doing. Artists get a certain percentage, and the rest goes to the RIAA, so its not the artists that are loosing out "potential revenue" its the RIAA, and thats only "potential" revenue, not taking into account that people just can't buy music like the used to because of these dang gas prices!! LIke for example, going after people stealing music off BitTorrent, you don't sue people who go on a website and click "download me now its free" that retarded, but anyone is gonna see that and think "oh ya I gotta download that" when who they should REALLY be going after, is the person who uploaded the file to the website or service in the first place, not the service itself, or the poor people who half the time don't know any better... The RIAA is getting rediculous with this crap there doing! These big RIAA people just don't think straight... Project Playlist is just another stepping stone in the RIAA's fight to make the internet no fun for anyone anymore! Down right ticks me off.. Its sites like project playlist, that keep sites like iTunes and Amazon music, in business!! they bring down sites like project playlist, and they can kiss sites like iTunes goodbye too because nobody will ever buy records anymore hardly if they take down its promotional advertising too. These guys just don't think straight....and how much you wanna bet, after all this sueing stuff is over with, the RIAA will come out with its own set of services like this... In that case, I say, all the people that got sued by the RIAA should ban together and go after them next!! I'd be laughing so hard! lol

[D3vildog699]

Screw em'. Ill take the battle straight to them, Take what you want. Oorah

[tm_anon]

I'm still waiting for the RIAA to try and sue Last.fm, they're doing the exact same thing. Large quantities of music, allowed listening to friends musical tastes through playlists. The RIAA and the rest should really learn, the internet playlist is the new radio. Instead of fighting it, try putting the new artist you're trying to promote into the mix and see how well they fair. Maybe even get Project Playlist to include a small section to purchase the music direct so you can make a profit right away. It's win-win, saves money on distribution, saves time for the listener and allows us to hear before we buy. Next thing you know, the RIAA will try and sue stores with listening stations because the customer can just walk in and listen to the whole CD without buying it. What if they carry a recording device in with them?

[CuttlefishTech]

Last.fm already has agreements in place with many of the major record labels, they're owned by CBS and certainly not illegal.

[gsmiller88]

Well I for one am sort of glad. I hate when someone has a playlist on their profile that is set to play automatically and I never can find where it is to pause it.

[SVEarl47]

I got a message from MySpace, saying that my playlist was deleted.

... yet, it's still there and functional.

[doitfortehlulz]

Same thing happened with me, until I checked last night. Sure enough, the code was still on my profile, however now you can't have the string of words projectplaylist anywhere, it just comes up as "...". But if yours isn't from project playlist, it won't be gone. I don't think other playlists are effected yet.

[Imalittleteapot]

I don't even have one of these, but I guess my wife does (did). Anyway, this is just because MySpace doesn't want to compete. Same as the music industry doesn't want to compete. Anyway, I'm absolutely sick and tired of all this copyright crap. The music industry and artists put out music and now it's getting to the point where they want you to buy it, but not listen to it. Unless you're listening to your CD with headphones on they basically want to sue you for copyright. You can't share your experience with anyone else or introduce new music to anyone anymore. Look, WHAT GOOD IS MUSIC IF NOBODY CAN ACTUALLY USE IT FOR ANYTHING?

Look, Facebook and MySpace are going to do the exact same thing to social networking that the music industry is doing to music. They want to control every aspect of it so they can keep others out. What we need to do is the same thing P2P did for music to social networking. We need an open source social networking program where you and your friends can host your profiles and blogs on your own host where you make the rules and you're not censored by some damn corporation. Then standardize a communication protocol between hosts just like email works now. I may have a gmail account my friend may have hotmail, but we can email each other just fine. I can also setup my own email server. That's what we need for social networking where I can setup my own host under my rules, but easily "socialize" if you will with users of any other host and that way it's decentralized like the Internet was made to be nobody has all the control, but on my host I make the rules. Not some stupid corporation that wants to introduce their own service and ban someone else's instead of fairly competing with them.

[pieco1]

Ohh My all Play list Deleted..



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