• Record Label Pressure Crashes Spotify's Party

    Thursday, January 29th, 2009

    Mike Butcher is the European Editor for TechCrunch. A former grunge rock drummer, he became a long time journalist, and has since written for UK national newspapers and magazines including The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The New Statesman. Mike is also a co-founder and shareholder of TechHub, a co-working space/service/community with several locations... → Learn More

    Music streaming startup Spotify is getting lots of plaudits from users lately for its ease of use and vast catalogue. But it seems the record labels don’t like it that way. In a blog post the startup outlines how it will be removing a number of songs from its catalogue and adding country restrictions to some tracks, which may make them unplayable for many users. The changes are being made because record labels have slapped restrictions on Spotify’s service.

    The issue is to do with the publishing rights associated with compilations. A user in one country might be able to listen to a track on one compilation in their country jurisdiction, but to share that track on a playlist with a user in another country could affect the publishing rights. It’s a bizarre situation to think that in 2009, then the out-dated DRM walls are already crumbling, that music streaming remains hobbled in this way. As the Sweden-based startups says: “…our hope is that one day restrictions like this will disappear for good”. See after the jump for their post.

    Sponsored Ads

    blog comments powered by Disqus

    Sponsored Ads

    Sponsored Ads

    Upcoming Events

    Disrupt SF 2012

    San Francisco, CA