Music makes the EU come together

Last week, 4 February, the European Parliament also approved the new Directive on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing - that are supposed to allow for easier streaming of music across the EU, exempting online music providers from having to apply for a license in every country they play music. Since only one of 500 licensed digital music services is available in all EU member states, these new rules may make this market more attractive for smaller competitors. (Licence to thrill...) This provided the online music provider will obtain a license from a collective management organisation representing authors' rights across borders. To facilitate this process national collective management organisations will be able to request other organisations to represent their repertoire (under the same conditions as applicable to their own repertoires) in countries for which they were not authorised to issue such licenses. The artists will need to be guaranteed their royalties not later than nine months from the end of the financial year in which the rights revenue was collected. Since the Directive was already informally agreed with the Council, the following Council's vote should just be a formality. (Copyright: cross-border licences for online music services)