ONLINE MUSIC: Nokia launches its online music store as major record labels push the company to avoid copyright infringements on its file-sharing site. Story below.
By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer
LOS ANGELES — Nokia Corp.’s new Britain-based online music service launched this week with more than 2 million songs, including tracks from every major record label except one: Warner Music Group Corp., home to artists such
as Green Day, Linkin Park and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
New York-based Warner refused to license its music for the service, taking issue with Nokia’s operation of a file-sharing Web site called Mosh, an executive familiar with the negotiations between the two companies said Friday on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the talks.
Warner insisted that Nokia promise not to promote Mosh alongside its paid music offerings, the executive said. Bill Plummer, Nokia’s vice president of multimedia for North America, declined to comment Friday on the details of the company’s negotiations with Warner, but said talks with the company were ongoing in “good faith and good spirit.”
A Warner spokeswoman declined to comment. Warner’s decision to remain outside the Nokia Music Store highlights the increasingly uneasy relationships among record labels and other entertainment companies and online hubs for user-generated content. YouTube and similar sites thrive from traffic created by computer users uploading all kinds of media files — including many copyrighted songs and videos.
Typically, media companies insist that files uploaded without permission by copyright holders be removed, and YouTube recently reached a formal agreement with major industry players on the issue. The wrinkle this time is Mosh is entirely separate from Nokia’s music portal. Now, a major label that does have content for sale on the Nokia Music Store is prepared to pull out unless Nokia shows it can beef up its measures to keep unauthorized content off Mosh, said a different executive, who works for a music company and is familiar with the discussions with Nokia.
Nokia was to meet with several record labels as early as next week to discuss the matter, that executive said on condition of anonymity because details of the talks with Nokia were confidential.
Asked about those plans, Plummer said: “We have an ongoing dialogue with our partners.” Nokia launched a “beta” version of Mosh, which stands for “mobilize and share,” in August. Computer users can upload music, video, software and other types of files geared to mobile phones on the site to be shared with anyone.
On Friday, audio clips from songs from all the major labels could be found on the site, including tracks by Green Day and Linkin Park; Universal Music Group’s Rihanna and 50 Cent; Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s Britney Spears; and EMI Group PLC’s Robbie Williams. The site uses technology designed to spot content that is not authorized for sharing, such as copyrighted songs. As it’s often the case with such content filters, however, unauthorized content slips through and stays on the site until someone steps up and demands that it be taken down.
“With the exception of very isolated cases, we really haven’t seen inappropriate content making its way through or being distributed via Mosh,” Plummer said, adding the company removes most unauthorized content from Mosh within a couple of hours after it receives a takedown notice.
Representatives of Universal, EMI and Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG, declined to comment on their deals with Nokia. Nokia, is based in Espoo, near the Finnish capital, Helsinki. The Nokia Music
Store launched on Thursday in the United Kingdom. The company plans to expand the portal to other European markets and elsewhere in coming months.
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