It only took 18 years, but it looks like the The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has finally admitted that the internet exists. In a surprising turn of events ASCAP has decided to come up with a licensing plan for music that will be used on sites and apps that are not very popular. If you have less than 30,000 visitors per month and make less than $2000 per month from your website or app, you can license all of ASCAP’s catalog, which includes 8.5 million works from over 450,000 songwriter, composer and music publisher members for $240 a year.
I know I am being hard on them, but in all actuality this is a pretty good thing. This will give small business owners and about 99% of websites on the internet the ability to legally license the music they are already stealing(ahem) borrowing.
I hope the other studios and unions jump on board this train, because it makes a lot of sense. The days of “let’s fight it tooth and nail and make sure no one is using our music” are over. If you make it easy to purchase the music, or in this case license it, folks will do it. The iTunes music store proved that theory. Nothing killed Napster and other music sharing sites quicker than the iTunes store because at last it was easy to get the music you wanted and it only cost you $.99.
Now if only the movie industry would get it.
For more info you can read the press release here.
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