If a Song is Played in the Forest, Does It Make a Sound?

Filed in archive Major Labels on October 16, 2006

If a Song is Played in the Forest, Does It Make a Sound?

That depends of the size of the trees.

The economic value of music copyrights has come to the forefront with the Google acquisition of YouTube. Now Hollywood is not just picking on tiny firms, but battling the big boys.

Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons warned "You can assume we're in negotiations with YouTube and that those negotiations will be kicked up to the Google level in the hope that we can get to some acceptable position."

But what is acceptable? Is it a share of the income directly generated from the use of such copyrighted content (fractions of a penny per play) or a share based on a purchased download price of $1 per song and $20 per movie?

In the case of P2P there was no negotiation. With viral videos Warner Music and a few but not all of the labels said they would share in the ad revenues generated. But Parson's statement indicates they're reassessing that plan now that a rich daddy is around.