BMI Collection Agencies Turn To Ring Tones To Collect Royalties
Record companies have apparently found a new tactic to cash in on royalties. As we are well aware, at first these businesses sued individual users who illegally downloaded music. But this approach to collecting money in order to recover from major financial loss has destroyed their public image.
In lieu of lowering the price of albums in order to go up against the free music circulating through the internet, the music industry has turned to collection agencies who are now taking legal action against cellphone companies over royalties from ring tones. They claimed that ring tones counted as public performances so cell phone companies should be obligated to pay performance fees. The courts quickly renounced this claim.
Despite this unfruitful endeavour to collect on royalties, Broadcast Music Inc is now suing T-Mobile over ring back tones, alleging that the mobile carrier is selling them without licensing agreements. Unlike ring tones, which play publically when someone calls, ring back tones are only heard specifically by the person calling. Instead of hearing a cellphone dialing, the caller will hear a song that was chosen by the cell owner.
Cynics are quickly to point out the seeming irony of this lawsuit. Ringtones which can be heard by anyone around a cellphone do not count as a public performance, so it seems ridiculous to sue the mobile carriers over a ringback tone that can be heard solely by the caller. The music industry, suffering from major financial losses, seems to be grasping at straws in order to collect any money that they possibly can.
It does not seem that lowering the cost of CDs and DVDs is an idea that has occurred to the major companies. There are still a number of music fans out there that prefer to collect and own the media, however with prices constantly spiking, downloading music for free seems very tempting. CDs generally go on sale for about seventeen dollars.
Some bands have been avoiding the issue of music downloading through different tactics. Radiohead, an alternative rock band, created a website where fans are allowed to download the music for free, or for a donation. Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has created a similar website. Keeping record companies’ unsuccessful lawsuits and declining public image in mind, it appears as though creative thinking and fair pricing may be more productive than bullying money out of mobile carriers and individual users.
Mallory McGuinness-Hickey works for debt collection agency Rapid Recovery Solution and writes free lance pieces on financial news.
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