-- MikeAbend - 18 Oct 2011

TOPIC: Abuses of market concentration for interactive services

Any "interactive service" under the copyright act, i.e. Spotify or Mog, must negotiate directly with each individual copyright holder to publicly perform (stream) it (these owners have the exclusive right to digital public performance). Since 4 labels own about 85% of all sound recording copyrights, it is absolutely essential to get all of them (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner) to agree to license their entire catalog. This unusually superior bargaining power allows them to demand huge concessions from services and severely impede the development of consumer friendly music providers

1. Services/labels don't adequately compensate artists/songwriters

2. Independent labels are paid less by these services, while at the same time they are forced to agree to the terms

3. Labels have abused their bargaining power to stifle competition in the "interactive services" market

POTENTIAL SOLUTION: Statutory license based on a "willing buyer willing seller" market model Consumption of music in the past few years has only INCREASED, the music industry's wounds are completely self inflicted through artificial scarcity