“Incredibly disappointing”. That’s indie body Merlin‘s comment on its lack of a licensing deal with Myspace Music… three years ago when that service launched (Bulletin, 25-Sep-08). It seems New Myspace hasn’t learned from its predecessor’s mistakes though, as Merlin is on the warpath again in 2013. It doesn’t have a deal with New Myspace to stream its catalogue, yet songs from more than 100 of its member labels are still available on the social service. “While it’s nice that Mr. Timberlake is launching his service on this platform, and acting as an advocate for the platform, on the other hand his peers as artists are being exploited without permission and not getting remuneration for it,” Merlin CEO Charles Caldas tells the New York Times. What’s worrying is Myspace’s response: that it decided not to renew the existing deal with Merlin, and that songs on the site “were likely uploaded by users” and will be removed if labels request takedowns. Or, as Myspace surely wouldn’t want it to be thought of as: the Grooveshark response.
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…