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The biggest Record Label emerges |
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Written by Kostas Tzounopoulos
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Sunday, 21 January 2007 |
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Yesterday in Midem Conf. in Cannes France, Merlin was announced. It is going to be the biggest record label in the world with 80% of the new releases and 30% of market share! It is a virtual company created by many small indie record labels. Its mission will be to license online music stores and content providers like YouTube and MySpace on behalf of its members...
Till today the deal an indie company could have with a major store like iTunes, Napster or Rhapsody was not similar to the four big companies (Universal/Vivendi, Warners, Sony BMG and EMI). This is going to change as this new virtual company will fight for its members when it comes to online licenses, permitting them to keep distributing their content in traditional ways also. "We're the largest company in the world if we act together," said Martin Lambot of the PIAS Group, and former president of Impala, the global indie labels' association. Mills told us that the move to a one-stop licensing agency for indies began 18 months ago, but had been accelerated when Universal Music cut deals with YouTube and MySpace as 2006 drew to a close. Alison Wenham of the UK-based Association for Independent Music (AIM) confirmed that indies would demand the removal of content from sites such as YouTube if they didn't cut Merlin a similar deal to the one negotiated by Universal Music, the world's biggest label. [via TheRegister] Read Also: Canada.com's article related articles:
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 21 January 2007 )
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