Who Owns the Live Music of Days Gone By?

Posted by: Grayson Brulte

“But live recordings can come with thorny legal questions. They were often made outside the studio under contracts that did not clearly assign copyrights to a record label. Now the content owners are scrambling to get the permissions needed to sell the material in formats that did not exist when the music was recorded. And labels and musicians are also asserting their rights to such recordings � in one instance, in court.”

Who will come out on top, the musicians, the labels or the fans? In my opinion, the musicians should secure the rights and open their own online music stores that offer live audio and video recordings in multiple formats. Phish teamed up with Nugs.net to launch Live Phish, which offers phans convenience and ease of use.

Content is king and it will drive the next growth movement on the internet. Whether it�s the artists or the labels, someone is going to profit from this. Now is the time to set up shop and offer the consumers what they want; more content!

Read the full article in The New York Times here.