Online Music Industry to Develop EU-Wide Licensing Scheme

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 21, 2009 - 9:22am.

Brussels - The EU's Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, on Wednesday announced a partnership between European royalty collection societies, major labels and online music retailers including Apple (NASD: AAPL) and Amazon (NASD: AMZN), to develop an EU-wide licensing scheme for music. Currently, rights for music and other copyrighted works must be negotiated separately for each individual country, with that particular country's collection society.

According to Kroes, the group -- which included Amazon; Apple; Nokia (NYSE: NOK); EMI; Universal; consumer advocacy group BEUC; and collection societies SACEM and STIM -- "recognized that current licensing mechanisms are too complex and burdensome, and that simpler licensing solutions are needed."

Separate from the EU annoucement, EMI Music Publishing said that it would sign nonexclusive licensing deals with SACEM and Spain's SGAE.

Kroes added that Apple "looks set to make iTunes available in more EU member states," while Amazon "is now enabling delivery of physical product categories into all 27 member states."

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/smyh6 (EU statement)

http://snipurl.com/smyq2 (EMI statement)

http://snipurl.com/smydz (AP)

http://snipurl.com/smye8 (Ars Technica)