Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A Win for Project Playlist: EMI Drops Suit, Signs On
EMI Music Group, which sued Web music start-up Project Playlist nearly a year ago, has dropped its suit and will start providing its catalog to the site, which offers free streaming music. The settlement, in conjunction with an earlier deal struck with Sony’s Sony Music Entertainment, means that Project Playlist now has deals with two of the big four music labels. But Warner Music Group and Vivendi’s Universal Music Group are still suing the company.
YouTube lets you repost its clips anywhere you want–unless you’re talking about big music’s videos, which remain trapped on the site. That makes no sense, and the labels know it–or at least some of their employees do. 
YouTube, the world’s biggest video site, and Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest music label, are talking about creating a YouTube Music site. About time.
Like everyone else in the music business, Universal Music Group had a rough end to 2008. But compared to its peers, the largest music company in the world did all right. It attributes some of its success to marijuana enthusiast Lil Wayne.
Remember the great Ticketmaster/Bruce Springsteen controversy of 2009? The one where fans of the Boss said they got screwed by the ticketing company everyone loves to hate? The one that prompted Springsteen himself to complain about Ticketmaster and its proposed acquisition of concert giant Live Nation? It’s over!
