

Some US musicians may soon be able to reclaim copyrights from their labels - geoffschmidt
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/arts/music/springsteen-and-others-soon-eligible-to-recover-song-rights.html

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geoffschmidt
For music startups, this could make music licensing even more of a mess than
it already is. Imagine negotiating separately with every artist in your
catalog. I know that to some extent separate negotiations already happen for
the biggest artists, but further disaggregation of the rights can only make it
worse.

Maybe over the next 35 years, everyone will reclaim their copyright, form a
syndicate, and collectively license them on reasonable and flexible terms! I
can dream, right?

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Turing_Machine
There's no reason the individual artists can't sign up with ASCAP, BMI, Harry
Fox, etc. (or some new similar agency) and I would expect most of them to do
that (many already have, of course). The exception would be, as you say, the
very biggest artists. Most small to mid-level artists aren't going to want to
hassle with (or pay for) individual negotiation any more than the your music
startup will.

