Through sheer determination, the European Commission is delivering results in liberalising online music distribution in the EU. It has secured several commitments moving in this direction from participants at a round table, organised on 19 October in Brussels.

In a ‘joint statement’, major music companies EMI and Universal Music Group International, and collecting societies SACEM of France, PRS for Music of the UK and STIM of Sweden, agreed to form a ‘working group’ that sets online copyright issues as a priority. The group will have to agree on a road map and a short-term schedule to make concrete proposals. The signatories committed to pursue certain goals, such as transparency and non-discriminatory criteria to allow other rights managers or other entities to deliver multi-territorial licences. Finally, the working group will create a framework to identify and exchange information on rights management. This last initiative will allow commercial users to identify the relevant rights owners and secure the necessary rights, the Commission said.

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In short, the EU executive managed to get copyright managers and major music labels to work together and move in the same direction on pan-European licenses comprising several national repertoires. Contrary to the American model, music licences in Europe are sold separately in each country – via collecting societies, such as SACEM. This in particular has prevented Apple from creating a single iTunes store for all of Europe. As a result, the US group, a market leader in online music distribution, bought licenses in the countries where it wanted to sell and offered different selections.

According to the Commission, Apple said at the end of the round table that it was optimistic about opening more online iTunes stores in Europe in 2010. EMI promised an important step forward via future non-exclusive deals with the Spanish and French collecting societies. Amazon, another online store, said it would continue to try and offer even more choice in all EU member states.

SACEM will work closely with as many European authors’ societies as possible to build a non-exclusive portal able to offer the largest possible repertoire to online services on a pan-European basis, the Commission said. The latter has already forced collecting societies to dismantle certain contractual practices deemed contrary to competition rules, such as contracts between copyright companies for distributing music via the internet, cable and satellite. This decision is still the subject of a dispute with the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) at the EU courts (see Europolitics3613).

The declaration is available at www.europolitics.info > Search = 259001