MIXCLOUD
we’ve just launched a technology that does music fingerprinting, that will take the radio show or the DJ mix and analyse the audio, matching it to a huge database. We’re working with Juno Download, an MP3 store, on this and we match it against the huge database of all the songs they have (I think it’s something like 60 million) so we can identify what songs have been played,” he says. “Ten in terms of recording and administering it, we send that information and we record all the playback and every song that is listened to, and that’s what we report back to the collecting societies.”
Added to this robust approach, Mixcloud also has a notice and takedown policy which record labels and others can use if they suspect infringement. “We’re required to comply with [a request] within 30 days but we generally do it within about three. To be honest, it’s very rare that people request that—we get maybe five to 10 requests a month,” Perez says. “It tends to be if there’s a festival and, say, someone DJs at Glastonbury and someone records that set and then puts it up, then the people running the festival might request it be taken down, because they want the music to be associated with their brand.”
As for the wider questions of how to deal with online piracy, Perez is clear that offering a good
service is the best way forward, not litigation. “On sites like Pirate Bay, people don’t really enjoy using them (for example, content doesn’t always work, you can’t always find what you’re looking for)—but people are generally willing to pay for things if it’s a good experience. Tat’s been Spotify’s approach, and it’s our approach. People have done studies and if you can offer a superior experience at a reasonable cost, people are willing to pay. But in order to do that, you need the cooperation of the rights holders, and that’s where the challenge is.“
Money making
Most arguments about music on the Internet rest on the assumption that artists and record labels are entitled to make a living from recorded music. Tat argument certainly has some merit, but it’s worth noting that it’s been possible to earn a living in this way only comparatively recently.
“Music has existed for thousands of years as a way of communicating, and story-telling, and it’s really only within the last 150 years that there’s been an industry around it, and really only in the last 50 that there’s been a recorded music industry, so it might just be that the reality of
the digital world today means that
www.worldipreview.com
World Intellectual Property Review July/August 2012
25
Photo: Ksenija Nikolic
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