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Comments

Lee Pritchard
Hi Shelly

I really enjoyed your post on this subject, spot on I think.

I just wanted to add, in my line of work I am constantly coming across new composers, bands and producers that are loosing faith in the ability of the collecting societies to collect royalties for them. In my experience the outmoded and inefficient methods of remunerating composers, using cue sheet, census and sample data to provide statistically calculated payouts seems to only reward those that are established and not those starting out or who are independent.

I would welcome a universal DRM if it could replace the plethora of PRO’s methods currently in operation around the globe with a new system that is efficient and could accurately demonstrate what music was being used where and who was owed what money. Probably wishful thinking!

To me the current situation seems to be a growing patchwork of partially effective solutions that helps the mainstream industry feel proactive towards their problems but do nothing for the independent composer / artists. In a world where we can see who listened to and who used our music from our own website stats you would hope that the huge music industry could come up with something much more effective. To me it seems that they don’t understand the concept of the new technology and keep applying inappropriate historic methodology to a new problem that needs a new set of rules.

In my opinion, I don’t think lawyers and court cases will solve this issue, as technology forges ahead policing music uses will become impossible unless there is a radical rethink.
V
This may be the most original, interesting take on DRM I've heard. As a rule, I consider DRM intrusive and wasteful. Unfortunately, this is as much an economic dilemma as it is a technical one. I don't like the idea of telling the entire YouTube crowd they can't have music in their movies, which requiring them to pay royalties would do. But would it be reasonable to divide up the revenue earned from such content so that the copyright owners of the music get a reasonable slice? If this could be done, it wouldn't be that hard to collect royalties. Just ask YouTube users to list the music they used so the artists can get paid. If it costs them nothing (they already bought the music) they'll do it to support the musicians they like. The problem becomes a mathematical one. How can ad revenue be divided so that, even in the form of millions of tiny slices, musicians can make a decent revenue from it?

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