The podshow music network screws musicians
yet another case of a web start up aggregating
content with insanely screwy licenses
Every time a new music dot com comes a knocking,
I always find it amusing to check out their license agreement. Every one I have
ever seen asks for far more rights that are reasonable. I can understand this
from their side to an extent. They want to make sure that no musician can sue
them, ever. However, they never see it from the musician's side. Every one of
them from good ol' MP3.com back in the day to myspace.com and now the podsafe
music network ask you to fork over ALL rights to your music. They or their
corporate parents or their future corporate parents will get to do whatever they
want with your music and not pay you a dime for the privilege. In fact, they
think that you should be happy for the exposure. This kind of thinking is BS. I
was especially disheartened when I saw the "Podsafe Music Network" license
agreement. It is by far the worst I have seen. Billed as a network of music that
is ok to podcast without ASCAP and BMI bugging you, it also gives them the
rights to sample your music, to mash it up or basically to do whatever they want
to with it. This is really fucked up. There are no grey zones, they are no
differing licenses like the Creative Commons. Nope, once you upload your music
they or anyone else can do whatever they want to with it and you can't do a
thing about it. Now that might be ok for you, many musicians these days don't
seem to care. What I dislike about it is that they don't offer options. I'm cool
with people using my music in podcasts; but I want people to ask me before they
use a sample or create a mashup of it. I think that is pretty fair. Therefore, I
can't upload my music to podshow... It's too bad. I thought it was a great idea
when they announced it.
Also, I think
the thing that bugs me is that podshow is a profit-driven company. They are
trying to figure out how to make money for podcasters. I think this is awesome.
However, I think it is shitty that they plan to make money for podcasters
without making money for the music that those podcasters use. There is nothing
mentioned in the podshow licensing agreement about paying for music ever. I call
bullshit on this as well.
This is the
e-mail that I sent to the "official" podsafe music network address as well as
Adam Curry directly:
I've been
tracking the development of podshow.com since Adam
first
starting hinting about it on the
Daily Source Code. I was delighted
to
see the Podsafe Music Network
announcement. It makes a ton of
sense
and could be great for podcasters
and musicians alike.
Unfortunately,
your license agreement,
while protecting your asses to the
hilt,
screws over the musicians and
gives them almost no options once
their
music is on their
system.
How about a system closer
to the Creative Commons Licensing
scheme
where music could be made
available to be included in podcasts
without
permission, but permission
would be required for mash ups or
sampling
or commerical use. This is how
all my free music online is licensed now and is
the
reason why it won't appear on
podshow until your license
agreement
gives me as much control over
my content as you have over
yours.
Also, since podshow is a
for-profit enterprise, I'd like to see
you
guys come up with a way to
reimburse the musicians for the
content
that you will use to drive your
revenue.
Posted: Thu - August 25, 2005 at 02:26 PM