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Business News Digital
Isle Of Man speaks to Playlouder about blanket licence system
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 27 February 2009
London-based Playlouder MSP has confirmed it has been talking to the e-business division of the Isle Of Man about their plans to introduce a system whereby the music industry grants a blanket licence to all web-users for all their music, with a levy charged on each islander’s monthly ISP subscription to compensate content owners.
Such a system would mean, in theory, that the use of P2P file sharing networks would become legal on the island because all content shared would be covered by the blanket licence.
The Isle Of Man announced its intention to pilot such a blanket licensing system last month, and the boss of Playlouder has confirmed he has spoken to officials there about their plans.
Playlouder has been advocating the blanket licence/ISP levy system for years, and has been in talks with various net firms about launching a premium internet package which includes a music levy which is redistributed to labels and publishers and which legitimises any P2P file sharing activity customers of that package participate in. Most recently Playlouder was known to be working with Virgin Media on such a proposal.
The problem, though, remains the major record companies. Although some in the industry, including some major label execs, see such a blanket licence levy system as being the long term future of online music, some at the majors still worry about the impact such as system will have on short term revenues, and in particular on the increasingly vital digital revenues that come in from a-la-carte download services like iTunes and licensed on-demand streaming services like YouTube and Spotify.
Others worry that introducing such a system via premium services with one or another ISP – rather than across the board – would confuse consumers and imply that P2P file sharing across the board was now legitimised.
There are also concerns as to how money generated by the levy would be distributed to labels, publishers, artists and songwriters. All of which means that Playlouder have struggled to get all the majors on board, and that reportedly hindered the Virgin Media proposals.
Confirming he had spoken to the Isle Of Man’s Inward Investment Manger, Ron Berry, the boss of Playlouder, Paul Hitchman, gave Billboard his opinions on the island’s proposals, saying: “I think it has potential; I think there’s a danger with any project like that, that something gets parked in a non-threatening space for two years while, in the meantime, the business gets destroyed. But I think the Isle Of Man is genuine about wanting to help move the process along and I think it could certainly play a role”.
He continued: “It’s going to require all parties – Manx Telecom, the Isle Of Man, a service provider like us and the music rights owners – to come together and make it work. And so long as there’s good will on the part of all of those players, there’s no reason while the Isle Of Man couldn’t lead the way in this area”.
Berry himself, who initially announced his plans for the blanket licencing system at MIDEM last month, says there has been a lot of interest in his proposals since he made his announcement. He told Billboard: “As with any business, if you’re there to test a model and prove a model, then you have a role to play going forward. Going forward, it’s good for e-business in the Isle Of Man and shows we have got a very innovative approach to business”.
