Jari Ketola
1 Nov 2003 12:58
MIT's idea to provide legal music to their students at low cost have failed. The LAMP (Library Access to Music Project) aimed to provide music to students without paying too much royalties while remaining a legal service. Music was delivered via analog cable TV and the songs played were selected in turn by the students. Labels are entitled to royalties in on-demand services only if the music is transferred digitally.
MIT relied on Loudeye to provide the content and licenses. It seems there was a mis-communication somewhere between the two parties, because Loudeye only has licenses to sell the encoded music files to its customers -- licenses for playing and delivering the content must be agreed on with the record labels and the final customer, which in this case was MIT.
MIT has removed songs from at least Vivendi Universal and Harry Fox Agency from the service which was opened on Monday. They are currently in the process of negotiating directly with record labels and publishers.
Source:
Ars Technica