Could Litigation And Regulation Kill Music 2.0?
- RIAA lawsuits are increasingly targeting college students and turning a generation of music consumers into enemies and outlaws.
- ASCAP thinks a download constitutes a performance and wants payment for both mechanical and performance royalties.
- Internet radio which already pays higher royalties than AM/FM broadcasters has been hit with new royalty rates that could put most of them – and all of the music discovery engines like Pandora – out of business.
The list goes on and on…
Could litigation and regulation kill the new music business? Maybe not. But just when new ways of doing business are beginning to show concrete results and profits to offset declining CD sales lawsuits, excessive royalties, lawsuits plus dated or excessive regulations will dramatically slow its growth.
Far worse is the fact that litigation and regulation is driving the true fan – the core consumer that starts most trends – so far underground that the industry can never monetize their love of music. That thought should strike fear in us all.
Share on:
All that US litigation will drive music fans underground and hand the business to the rest of the world. Here in Europe every music 2.0 business must be laughing with joy and disbeleief as the American music business eats itself.
An example -How much money do you think there is in hosting American Net radio stations in Sweden? Ericsson will give you the bandwidth for practically nothing and under EU law, a Web site’s legal domicile is the country in which the server is located. Add a reasonable rent per station and a bit of Ad Sense…viola!