by GMM on January 24th 2007, at 15:24 CET
Merlin is the name for a "virtual major label", created a few days ago at MIDEM by a huge bunch of independent labels. It"s so fresh it even hasn"t gotten it"s own Wikipedia entry yet (I"m not sure that is a good sign...) but if this succeeds, it will be the "fifth" major, and possibly the largest.
Separately, indie labels are microscopic compared to the four majors (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, Warner), but combined they represent 80 percent of new music releases, while the majors keep spitting out their back-catalogue on new DRM infected media.
Theoretically this Merlin thing is brilliant. This new "major" is nothing physical, it is just representative for all the involved indies. Merlin does not distribute, or own anything, but represent.
This is needed when for example negotiating royalties and rights for online music sales. Let"s say you run an online music store, let"s call it uTunes. If you want people to use uTunes, you probably would like to have all the music in the world available. That means talking to four majors, and 42 051 431 small indie labels. Or, in reality, you talk to the four majors and they decide for you, and uTunes ends up being yet another major money printer.
With a fifth major label representing the 42 051 431 indies, not only will this new major be able to negotiate for all the indies at once, making the process VERY simple for uTunes, but due to it"s size it is also able to negotiate better deals. Sounds good.
It almost sounds too good to be true. Now I have tried digging out more info on this new "major", but there isn"t much available yet. And I"m not convinced. I"m not super happy about macro-solutions, and centralizing power like this. Of course the indie labels keep their independence within Merlin, that is not what I"m worried about. Do we need really need a new major? Who is running this? Is it a democracy? How do the labels decide and agree on Merlin"s policies?
I dunno.
I really hope this is a step in the right direction. Maybe something like this needed to fight the majors, who I truly believe are killing music right now with their weapons of music destruction; RIAA and IFPI.
So my current take on this; I"m on the fence. I gladly welcome Merlin, but he"d better pull some nice tricks before I"m convinced. And he"d better not appear in my lower right corner when I"m printing something.
Via ArsTechnica.
Separately, indie labels are microscopic compared to the four majors (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, Warner), but combined they represent 80 percent of new music releases, while the majors keep spitting out their back-catalogue on new DRM infected media.
Theoretically this Merlin thing is brilliant. This new "major" is nothing physical, it is just representative for all the involved indies. Merlin does not distribute, or own anything, but represent.
This is needed when for example negotiating royalties and rights for online music sales. Let"s say you run an online music store, let"s call it uTunes. If you want people to use uTunes, you probably would like to have all the music in the world available. That means talking to four majors, and 42 051 431 small indie labels. Or, in reality, you talk to the four majors and they decide for you, and uTunes ends up being yet another major money printer.
With a fifth major label representing the 42 051 431 indies, not only will this new major be able to negotiate for all the indies at once, making the process VERY simple for uTunes, but due to it"s size it is also able to negotiate better deals. Sounds good.
It almost sounds too good to be true. Now I have tried digging out more info on this new "major", but there isn"t much available yet. And I"m not convinced. I"m not super happy about macro-solutions, and centralizing power like this. Of course the indie labels keep their independence within Merlin, that is not what I"m worried about. Do we need really need a new major? Who is running this? Is it a democracy? How do the labels decide and agree on Merlin"s policies?
I dunno.
I really hope this is a step in the right direction. Maybe something like this needed to fight the majors, who I truly believe are killing music right now with their weapons of music destruction; RIAA and IFPI.
So my current take on this; I"m on the fence. I gladly welcome Merlin, but he"d better pull some nice tricks before I"m convinced. And he"d better not appear in my lower right corner when I"m printing something.
Via ArsTechnica.
