Merlin “Concerned” Indies May Not Get Fair Deal From Google Music, Signs Deal With Rdio

Indie trade group Merlin has signed a deal with Rdio to stream the music of its members which include such key indie labels as Rough Trade, Epitaph, Naxos, Beggars, Merge and Domino. The deal fills a major hole in the Rdio offering.  At the same time, a leaked email to Merlin members states that while talks have finally begun with the proposed Google Music service, Merlin execs remain concerned that indie artists and labels may not get a fair deal.

"Merlin has had significant concerns that independents have been excluded form these discussions and that historically, services which follow this development path typically tend to in our view to discriminate against independents (e.g. MySpace Music and You Tube) both in terms of the commercial terms they are eventually offered and also in the structuring of the major record company agreements,"  Merlin CEO Charles Caldas said in the email.

"We now hope to achieve a Merlin agreement with Google on behalf of our members, which both addresses those concerns and reflects fully and properly the value of our members' repertoire via a Merlin license."

More: Hypebot's exclusive interview with Carter Adamson, the COO of RDIO