Petteri Pyyny
10 Feb 2003 13:29
IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry, the global umbrella group representing national recording industry associations, such as RIAA) announced today a new technology called GRid (Global Release identifier) that allows record labels and artists to track more accurately their online digital music sales.
Each participating online reseller -- whether they sell music downloads or streaming audio -- will implement a GRid tag into all of its digital music that contain then an information of the artist, publisher, songwriter, etc. This information will then help record labels and individual artists to track how well their music sales perform in digital world.
"If this is done properly, the artists and authors of music will be paid adequately for the sale of their works online," said Paul Jessop, chief technology officer of the IFPI.
Basically the idea is to harmonize the sales tracking systems used in various online stores that sell digital music. At first, the system would be run on voluntary-basis, where resellers will pay for the technology -- but the licensing fees are only $245 a year with no limits on how many songs can be tagged with the technology.
Source: Reuters via Yahoo!