Business News [07-13-2008]
Merlin Issues Statement Regarding Last.fm Artist Royalty Program
The bulletin highlighted the following important points:
* "The Program announced today does not appear to offer any compensation for any past illegal use of repertoire. It is unclear to us whether or not the terms and conditions of the Program are intended to prevent master owners pursuing such compensation.
* "As you will be aware, we have for the last few months been negotiating with Last.fm regarding a non exclusive blanket licence and a settlement agreement on behalf of Merlin members. Unfortunately, these negotiations have stalled - in particular due to Last.fm's unwillingness to properly address its illegal infringing activity.
* "Several provisions of the licence terms and conditions of the Program appear ambiguous and open to legal interpretation. We note that this would tend to lead to uncertainty as to the "true" meaning of the licence. The licence points out that if you are unsure about any of it "YOU ARE ADVISED TO OBTAIN INDEPENDENT LEGAL ADVICE" - we would endorse that view."
Merlin membership numbers over 12,000 labels - representing, without a doubt, the largest and most commercially significant bundle of music rights outside the majors.
This brings their current market share in the US alone to over 8%, equal to that of EMI Music. Worldwide, members were responsible for 72% of Europe's top 60 independent albums for the past three years and a 75% market share of the top UK's 75 independent albums in 2007.
Merlin's remit is to represent the world's independent sector and act as an efficient central point of entry to the music it represents, in particular for digital, new media and web 2.0 rights. Merlin provides an unprecedented efficiency in bringing together the world's most commercially important independent repertoire in one place.
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