Bill called me on the phone this morning and had me tune into today’s edition of Adam Curry‘s Daily Source Code podcast because a portion of it focuses specifically on artists’ rights as they pertain to podcasting (not to mention live performances in Europe, specifically Finland). Adam (yes, the former VJ for eMpTyV) has been nicknamed “The Podfather” because of his work in helping to propogate this new medium, and earlier this year created a company called PodShow which is dedicated to the production, promotion, and marketing potential of podcasting. PodShow owns indiePodder.org, the base podcast directory on the Web, and the PodSafe Music Network, dedicated to helping podcasters find independent music to play on their podcast and for artists to promote their music through podcasting.

Anyway, going back to this particular podcast… Basically, in a nutshell, European artists organizations are getting more and more strict with podcasting restrictions as they continue to try and put a stranglehold on this new medium. What’s happening is that when a band signs up with their country’s version of ASCAP/BMI (and it’s not just in Finland but also Germany, France, and The Netherlands), they are not allowed to give away any other rights to anyone else, PERIOD. So if you belong to (for example) Teosto in Finland, you can’t give a podcaster permission to feature your music on their podcast for free. That would be a breach of your contract with that rights organization. What does this mean? Bottom line is it means that Teosto OWNS YOUR MUSIC. They own the copyright, and there’s nothing you can do about it (unless you can somehow break your ties with them). Any and all musicians, band members, DJs, podcasters, audiobloggers, independent music fans, etc. should listen to this short (3:49) segment of Adam’s show from today and get the full gist of what’s going on (MP3 linked below), and then do yourself a favor and subscribe to his podcast (iTunes users click here) so you can check it daily and stay on top of this developing news story. It may not be too long before other rights organizations (such as ASCAP/BMI here in the U.S.) go down this same road, which would fuck over not only all of us podcasters, but the artists they’re featuring as well!

Click here to listen:
#287 Daily Source Code for Monday November 28th 2005 (MP3)

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Posted by kopper in GaragePunk.com News | One Comment »