AfterDawn: News

Indie labels form agency for digital downloads

Independent labels around the world have revealed they want to become the "fifth major" in the music industry by forming a new agency called Merlin. Independent record labels are responsible for 80% of all new releases, but only 30% of the revenues. Using Merlin, many Independent labels will be able to cut deals with download stores and mobile services on their behalf.

This will make it much easier for Indie labels to offer their content to consumers through sites such as MySpace. Downloads will be in the MP3 format and will play back with any MP3-compatible portable player. Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music are known as the four major record labels; Merlin revealed on Saturday that it will now act as the fifth major.



In a statement Merlin said it aims to "improve access and level the playing field with new and emerging media." Download stores will gain access to its members content through just one deal, compared to the thousands of separate negotiations that would otherwise take place.

Source:
BBC News

Written by: James Delahunty @ 22 Jan 2007 18:07

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• 5 comments

• oofRome

  Any word on how Merlin will stand regarding the RIAA?

  23.1.2007 10:01 #1

• Gidgid

  Or DRM for that matter.

  23.1.2007 16:19 #2

• Cman

  You can expect either an attempted buyout by the RIAA, some form of financial compensation in return for an abandonment of this idea, or a full defacto declaraton of war by the RIAA on Merlin.
  
  If you can beat them, buy them. If you can buy them, bury them..

  23.1.2007 17:25 #3

• borhan9

  How they would deal with DRM is more my concern.

  24.1.2007 17:16 #4

• Shelley23

  Thursday 25th January 2007
  
  Whatever.The idea that a humble Musician or Singer-Songwriter can be free from the servitude of a cold,callous,corporate record-label and the corporate-contemporary music industry as a whole today; is not a new idea.
  Sam Cooke( January 22nd 1931- December 11th 1964) tried to do exactly this and failed; no thanks to the cut-throat callous nature of assumingly-threatened Major Record Labels and the Corporate Thugs behind the Music Industry. Sam Cooke wanted freedom from slavery(He was an Aquarian,after-all!) and so he set-up his own Record-Label in the 1960's :SAR Records.The Major -Labels did everything they could to hinder him in his egalitarian ideas put into practice. He was a spiritual-man who like many Spiritual-People who find themselves unwillingly or otherwise working in the music industry; he was lured into a vile sleazy seedy-world of prostitution(sexual-abusers) one such prostitute by whom he was, i believe eventually murdered in cold blood.
  Lessons to be learnt from this!?
  
  1)If as a musician and or singer-songwriter you seek to obtain total freedom of expression in your work and control over your work, it is an uphill and dirty-battle you are going to have to fight against the cold,callous,corrupt mercenary corporate-world.
  
  2)Never give money to a whore/prostitute/hooker for sexual-intercourse.She or he does not deserve-it,nobody does.Making-love is a spiritual-act,an expression of love.It is not a mercenary-act for which a human-being should demand financial-gain from.
  Whores by their nature are corrupt,deceitful,mercenary,callous,duplicitous and soulless.What they do is deception-they fake an act of love for money.They are never to be trusted,they are sexual-abusers and users .They abuse the nuclear-family,they abuse the children of the person who pays them for sexual-intercourse,they abuse the girlfriend or wife(or if homosexual-boyfriend/husband)of the person who pays them for sexual-intercourse. A prostitute cares not for whom they take money from for sexual-intercourse-they could be a murderer,rapist,pedophile,theif,burgular,drug-dealer,or any kind of lowlife criminal on Planet Earth. A prostitute has no-morals or integrity-they are an abuser.Sam Cooke was murdered by a prostitute(brothel-madam ie aging hag ho whore like heidi fleiss -vile despicable foul woman that she is).It is my belief that Kurt Cobain was also murdered or set-up to be murdered by a prostitute-his wife,Courtney Love. Like i said, never trust a prostitute and if you have any common-sense at-all you will not want a prostitute in your life; to pay for sexual-intercourse or otherwise.A Leopard never changes its spots-neither does a whore.
  
  
  I am interested in fighting to make the music (and entertainment industry as a whole)more egalitarian,honest,just and fair. If anyone wishes to do the same they can contact me via my Blogspot.com:Marianna Jane Close and leave a message.Or, of course, one such interested person of a likemind, could leave a message here.
  
  Thank you.
  
  Yours sincerely,
  Marianna Jane Close
  
  
  
  

  25.1.2007 01:05 #5