Has the Music Industry Warmed to Fee-Based Downloads?

"It's a model worth looking at," John Kennedy, head of the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry, said at a press briefing last weekend in Cannes at Midem, the annual global music market. "If the ISPs want to come to us and look for a blanket license for an amount per month, let's engage in that discussion."

"Remember the "global music license"? The fee that would free us to copy digital music with few restraints? It's baaaack.
A year ago, the music industry was in near hysteria over the French government's proposal to impose a global license fee that would stand in for royalty payments on the purchases of digital music over the Internet ."


http://www.macnewsworld.com/rsstory/55420.html

Remember last year when the music industry imposed the global music license, this is when one has to pay for music that is downloaded. Guess what, this year its back again. The new and improved rules are to give the record company an edge on sales. Recent sales of cd's have not been profitable. So, what was proposed was to charge a fee for all music being downloaded via the internet. A minimal fee of 8.66 USD is to be charged to users who download music on a regular basis.

Along with this issue another unfold, there is talk that some music will be banned to be played on particular devices if the license is not bought. For example, you may have a song that you downloaded, but that song will not sync or lode onto your iPod unless you have rights to that song, i.e., you have to buy the rights.

Unfair? Maybe, but, the industry has to take some charge on their demising profits.

Rahul Zala