If you ever watched Cosmos, who can forget Carl Sagan’s many references to millions, billions and trillions.  But Dr. Sagan ain’t got nothing on YouTube and Spotify. In their desperate attempt to quell the international wave of anger against the respective services, YouTube’s Christophe Muller and of course the venture capitalist darling Daniel Ek have […]

We’ve talked before about how Google profits out the back door from its “fair use” of scanning millions of books at its high security scanning center (see “Epsilons at the Brave New Googolplex“), what I call “non-display” uses of works of authorship.  Here’s another one, this time with YouTube. Remember–YouTube is essentially a datamining honeypot […]

The Wall Street Journal reports that the (largely) European streaming service Deezer has pulled its initial public offering float of shares on the Euronext exchange in Paris.  Let me tell you, pulling an IPO is no small thing, particularly on the eve of registering the shares.  That’s the kind of thing that can ruin your […]

You’ve probably heard a lot about the gut wrenching need for a “global rights database” because “music licensing is broken”.  It sounds like of like a political campaign advertisement, right? Music licensing is broken Let’s drain the swamp And protect the future for our children Let’s get something straight at the outset:  This “if we […]

We’ve all seen the kabuki dance from various sources that support the central theme of why digital services don’t pay songwriters consistently:  If there was only this central database in the sky, then all would be solved.  This has been the theme since the Napster lawsuits–if you can’t tell anyone what you own, then they’ll […]

As the major non-state actor funding copyright irredentist movements across the globe, Google put another notch in its lawfare belt by taking down authors, illustrators and photographers.  Yes, the bizarre Google Books case was upheld on appeal in the Second Circuit. That’s right—appointed for life judges think that it’s OK for Google to scan and […]

Originally posted on The Trichordist:
Everyone in the music industry is abuzz with the news that Spotify failed to license much of the Victory Records song catalogue. Spotify failed to pay royalties on these songs. After Victory Records went public Spotify pulled the entire catalogue Spotify spokesperson Jonathan Prince was quick to say this: “We…

It’s no accident that the logo for Tony Brummel’s Victory Records is a tough old bulldog.  Tony is one of the great record men and it’s also no accident that Victory is standing up to Spotify for stiffing its artists and writers.  When you hear all the label bashing from the MMF and Spotify I […]

Cooke suggested that artists can flex their promotional weight [to help Spotify get to IPO?]: “When you see those blogs of artists saying ‘my Spotify royalties aren’t enough’. It’s not that your Spotify royalties are not enough. It’s that there aren’t enough Spotify users,” he said.  [Yes, that’s right.  Ask not what Spotify can do for […]

If you read the recent Wall Street Journal story (“Songwriters Lose Out on Royalties“) about the unpaid and underpaid songwriter royalties digital services, especially at Spotify, you might have noticed an inconsistency.  Here’s where it starts: “We want to pay every [fraction of a] penny, but we need to know who [sic] to pay,” Spotify spokesman […]