Pressplay and MusicNet worse than Napster

At least, that’s how musicians and their lawyers see the situation. Despite months of rhetoric from EMI, BMG, Sony, Universal and others concerning the illegality of Napster, there was only ever one argument that had a chance at persuading people to

At least, that's how musicians and their lawyers see the situation. Despite months of rhetoric from EMI, BMG, Sony, Universal and others concerning the illegality of Napster, there was only ever one argument that had a chance at persuading people to give up Napster and P2P for pay-per-use services. The statement 'Napster steals from artists. Our solutions pay artists for their work' was usually enough to make most Napster users think twice about what they were doing, guilty over enjoying their favourite music without giving something back to their favourite artists. These new subscription based services were supposed to be the solution, a guilt-free way of getting access to the music you wanted, when you wanted it. However, according to the artists themselves, big labels are paying a pittance – fractions of a cent per song – for their intellectual property and in some cases, simply ignoring them all together.

According to this article, some musicians are so incensed at the actions of their labels they have issued 'Cease and Desist' orders, demanding their music be pulled from the Pressplay and MusicNet services. As music lawyer Jill Berliner put it; 'if the technology is going to be out there and the artist isn't really going to make money, we'd prefer that our fans just get it for free'.

While some artists such as No Doubt and The Offspring have been successful in having their music removed, others have not been so lucky. According to one manager who wished to remain anonymous, many requests for discussion have gone unanswered. 'We've written them letters and put them on notice up front, as did most managers and lawyers… but they'll do it anyway. They're so arrogant.'

According to some calculations, labels are taking as much as 91% of the profits from these online services.

Hopefully, more artists will demand to have their songs taken off MusicNet and Pressplay in protest over the absurd profit distribution scheme. If this happens, the situation will go one of two ways. Either the labels will decide to be fair and give the artists the percentage they deserve, or they will decide that it's all too much trouble and scrap the concept of online music distribution all together. If the latter happens, you can be sure the RIAA will attempt to sue the heck out of anyone and everyone who dares use P2P software, in a vain attempt at shutting down the one application that could destroy the stranglehold held by America's major music labels over the entire industry.