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Anyone has experience with online music and licensing rights ? Who are the big players and how can someone license any music from them ? I never saw any legal site out-there, did I miss anything ? |
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One of my friends said this to me, musicians here in the Arab world don't give a rat's sh*t to music piracy, because they make money from concerts and wedding ceremonies. And for them pirated music is some kind of viral marketing for their songs. They know that no one will pay a penny to buy an mp3 here, so digital music sales isn't there in their business model. |
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Rotana is definitely the market leader not only in owning and controlling the rights, but also in using the IP in new media channels. The first wave of IP infringement was mobile ringtones and ring-back tones - there was a period a few years ago where every content provider had the same selection of music. Rotana had enough influence with the operators to demand the market legalizes, and it mostly has. Operators now ask providers to support any music they're offering with an official letter from Rotana. The artists might not care, but Rotana certainly does! It seems that the pirate music sites are now going through the same cleanup. As Habib mentioned a few have now forged deals with Rotana - not sure what the model is and how Rotana is monetizing these agreements, but at least they're legalizing music sharing. Kudos to them and I hope to see this with other forms of digital media in the region soon! |
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As I tweeted to @habibh, "it doesn't, it's all illegal downloads. I hope that in next 2 yrs, FEN Productions will be able to do something similar to iTunes..." As someone having to deal with some of these record labels, they aren't looking out for the artist as much as they are looking out for their wallets and name... hence the artist performs many concerts and weddings to make their real money. However, I think once a company can place on a map a trend to benefit both the consumer and the labels, especially the artists, then in time it'll work. This is a goal of FEN Productions... |
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The issue of online Arabic music is three-fold: (1) Consumers - Not accustomed to paying for music content (even CDs), not willing to buy online (Security). (2) Labels - Very little content is worth paying for... (3) Artist - Artists have never made money from music sales (even CDs). Thus have no financial interest of being online, merely promotional. |
I love this question, I don't know much about it but hopefully others can help. The few sites I know are mawaly, 6arab, 6rb ... I heard that one of them did a deal with Rotatana but the rest as far as I know use content illegaly ...