Choruss man calls for statutory licensing while admitting ‘I blew it’

Remember Choruss? The US scheme was intended to legalise and monetise filesharing in US colleges and universities, and was the brainchild of former WMG executive Jim Griffin. However, the initiative is now on ice. “My fault, I blew it,” Griffin tells GigaOM. “We couldn't even find half of the rights holders.” He also makes a more startling suggestion: “There needs to be a compulsory or statutory licensing environment.” Griffin is now working on a global registry for music rights to make it easier to identify rightsholders. Griffin had been working with P2P firm Audiogalaxy's founder Michael Merhej on the software for Choruss' legit P2P rollout, and Merhej has provided his own perspective on its failure. “In the end, the rights holders, universities, Choruss, and us could not agree on the right price and legal structure for this type of service.” Audiogalaxy has now returned as a cloud service letting people play their own catalogues of DRM-free songs from anywhere. “What we have launched today is only a small piece of our vision…”