International Law

Sony BMG and Deezer sign online music broadcasting deal

By Nicolas Jondet

Deezer.com, a free on-demand music streaming website has signed a deal with Sony BMG , the second largest record label in the world, to allow the broadcasting of 165,000 titles from artists such as Justin Timberlake or Alicia Keys. This deal represents an important milestone both in digital music distribution and in Deezer’s difficult journey towards legality. Deezer, whose previous incarnation had been shut down for copyright improprieties, was re-launched this summer thanks to a royalty payment deal with a French collecting society representing music artists. To become fully legal, Deezer still had to secure individual deals with each record label, in order to obtain authorization to broadcast their music. This quest for authorizations got off to a bad start as Universal Music refused to cooperate, denouncing the service as illegal. The deal with Sony thus constitutes a decisive step in securing Deezer’s future and an opportunity for a major record label to test the viability of a new revenue stream.

Full post as published by French-law.net on October 10, 2007 (boomark / email).