MySpace bans Project Playlist… then Sony BMG signs a deal with it
It’s been an interesting few days for music service Project Playlist, to say the least. Late last week, the company’s widgets were removed from MySpace, apparently following pressure from several major labels. Or, as a MySpace statement put it:
“MySpace has received notices of infringement about Project Playlist at different times from several of the major music companies currently suing Project Playlist. Per our policy of taking very seriously the requests of rights holders to block access to third party sites that are believed to be infringing, we have evaluated the requests of the major music companies and determined that it is in our best interest not to allow Project Playlist widgets on MySpace, and effective immediately, we will no longer be allowing these widgets within the MySpace platform.”
Separate reports suggested that Facebook had been getting similar pressure, but had refused to remove Project Playlist from its service.
But here’s the thing: yesterday, Project Playlist signed a legit licensing deal with Sony BMG, giving it access to the label’s catalogue of music and videos. The deal won’t bring the MySpace/Facebook problems to an end, since the site is still being sued by UMG, WMG and EMI, but it seemingly indicates that Project Playlist is keen to strike legitimate deals before the labels force it out of business.
Tags: facebook, Myspace, project playlist
December 24th, 2008 at 10:50 am
[...] a troubling end of 2008 for music site Project Playlist, to say the least. MySpace banned its widget last week following pressure from the major labels, and now Facebook has followed [...]
April 7th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I used Project playlist for a long time, it is a reliable and very easy to use player. Now im stuck using a second rate player, it takes forever to even find a good link on the website to the music i want on my playlist. I miss Project Playlist. Get it together people!