Abstract
A New Model for the Digital Economy
- Traditional Publishing Model
- New Publishing Model
- Music Rights
- Purchasing Music Rights
- Royalty Distribution
- Music Licensing
It is clear that digital music is transforming the structure and operation of
the recorded music industry. But so far the music publishing industry has been
relatively unaffected. Will this remain the case? This report analyses one way
in which digital music could change the way the music publishing industry
works.
The increasing overlap between the music industry and the strategic paths
being followed by companies like ebay, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo! and Google
provide important clues as to the type of changes that could take place.
For example, if the recorded music industry has been transformed by the
digital commercialisation of its core asset - the sound recording rights -
then we should ask how the music publishing industry could be transformed if
its core asset, the underlying music rights, were commercialised digitally.
One type of transformation would involve the creation of a new asset class,
music rights, which could be traded in an online, regulated marketplace.
' Rightsholders' could enjoy a capital gain as the value of their investment
increased, in a similar way how stockholders and bondholders can enjoy capital
gains as their investments increase in value.
The report describes how such an online market could be set up and how it
might operate. In addition, just as there is a ' long tail' when it comes to
selling music, there is a ' long tail' when it comes to commercialising music
and so the report also describes a new online music licensing regime which
would work hand-in-hand with the online music rights marketplace.
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