Gerd Leonhard

Citing Unworkable Licensing, Music Service Sonific Turns Off

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 22, 2008 - 9:33am.

San Francisco - Sonific, a provider of licensed music widgets and free music applications for social media, said on Tuesday that it will take its service offline "as a consequence of the unworkable music licensing situation and the resulting lack of solid revenue modeling," co-founder and CEO Gerd Leonhard wrote in a note on Sonific.com. The company had attracted 80,000 users to its service and amassed a library of over 200,000 licensed songs.

Analysis: What is the Role of the Artist in a Digital Age?

Authored by Jay Baage on May 1, 2007 - 6:30am.

I attended the Swedish Music Seminar held at the Consulate General’s residence in Santa Monica over the weekend and took part in the first day of MusExpo on Monday at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood. One issue that seems to be on everyone’s mind is how artists are going to be compensated for their work in a digital age. My conclusion from listening to the discussions is two-fold: The bad news for the artists is that they have to be more involved in the business side of their careers going forward, but the good news is that there are more avenues than ever to get their music out.