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RIAA Has Facebook And MySpace Ban Project Playlist

Bruce Houghton — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:46:34 +0000

Late last week MySpace responded to notices from the RIAA by banning all ProjectPlaylist widgets from its site. Yesterday Facebook followed suit.

"The RIAA initially contacted Facebook last summer requesting the removal of the Project Playlist application for copyright violation, and recently reopened those communications. We have forwarded the RIAA’s letters to Project Playlist so it can work directly with that organization and music labels on a resolution. In the meantime, the application must be removed to comply with the Facebook Platform Terms of Service…

Our hope and expectation is that the parties can resolve their disagreements in a manner that satisfies the developer and copyright holder, that continues to offer a great experience to music fans, and that doesn’t discourage other developers from using Platform to share their creativity and test new ideas.”

That Facebook held out longer than MySpace is a surprise to many. Though perhaps Owen Van Natta, Facebook’s former chief revenue officer, who recently became the CEO of ProjectPlaylist still has a few friends at the social networker.

This could prove a fatal blow for ProjectPlaylist, who until last week had been growing rapidly. SonyBMG cut a deal to license music to the playlist community on Saturday. But it appears that the other three majors, who have been negotiationg with project playlist all Fall. aren’t as close to deals as had been rumored.

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Major Labels At Odds With Music 2.0 Companies

Bruce Houghton — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:18:45 +0000

DEVELOPING STORIES:

UPDATED: Over what should have been a slow pre-holiday weekend two stories broke that again put the major labels at odds with several major Music 2.0 companies. Here are links to our updated coverage:

Unable to get the revenue share is sought, Warner Music Group pulled all of its label and publishing content off YouTube. We have up to date details and a commentary. Earlier in the week Universal claimed it would make $100 million from online video in 2008.

All four major labels are in the middle of re-negotiations with Google owned YouTube who are warning them to expect small payouts.

At the request of several major labels and publishers MySpace pulled all Project Play list widgets from the site. Thus far, they remain up on Facebook.

The RIAA filed a lawsuit on behalf of its label members against Project Playlist in April claiming copyright infringement.

Sony BMG signed on with Project Playlist on Monday.

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Project Playlist Sued By Nine Labels

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:15:50 +0000

Online music provider Project Playlist is being sued by nine major labels for "massive infringement" of their copyrights.

The web site allows users to play and share music with others for free. The site has a large index of songs users can search for recordings by their favorite artists. "At the click of a mouse," the lawsuit said, "Project Playlist instantly streams a digital performance of the selected recording to the user, who can listen to it on his or her computer or mobile device."

Project Playlist allows its users to embed their playlists on social networking sites including Facebook, and MySpace. The record labels said Project Playlist brings in more than 600,000 users daily, with around 9.5 million average views per day.

The nine labels in the suit are: Warner Music Group Corp’s Atlantic Recording Corp, Elektra Entertainment Group Inc and Warner Bros. Records Inc; EMI Group Plc’s Capitol Records LLC, Priority Records LLC and Virgin Records America Inc; Interscope Records, Motown Record Co LP and UMG Recordings Inc, labels of Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group.