Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Universal Music Group

Apple Fighting Against Musicians To Have Steve Jobs Deposition Made Public

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:10:31 +0000

In February 2009, I wrote an article about Eminem’s publishing company taking Universal Music Group to court and the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was going to testify. Jobs did provide a deposition for that case and now a group of musicians is bringing a class action lawsuit against UMG. These musicians are interested in hearing Jobs’ deposition from back then, but Apple is fighting against making the deposition public claiming that it contains ”highly confidential and proprietary trade secrets.”

When Jobs made the deposition back then, the court had to shut down to hear it. The judge ordered almost everybody out of the courtroom including UMG employees. When Jobs’ deposition was played before the jury, the judge had also closed the courtroom. Many people were ordered to leave and the transcripts from the trial sessions were filed under deal.

F.B.T. Productions were the producers of many hit Eminem songs and they filed a lawsuit against Aftermath Records, a division of UMG. This lawsuit has been watched closely by the music industry ever since the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that a contract between the parties should be read as treating digital music as “licenses” instead of “sales.” The two sides are going to find out how much exactly this will be worth in an upcoming trial. There are millions of dollars at stake here.

YouTube Reinstates Megaupload Celebrity Video, Says Universal Did Not Have A Right To Take It Down

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:01:29 +0000

Above is a video that Megaupload created a music video that features Macy Gray, Kim Kardashian, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Kanye West, Floyd Mayweather, Estelle, Carmello Anthony, Ciara, Brett Rattner, Lil’ Jon, P. Diddy, Mary J. Blige, and several other celebrities. Universal Music Group had it taken down from YouTube. YouTube’s copyright filters removed the all star video, but Google reinstated the video on Wednesday.

“Our partners do not have the right to take down videos from YT unless they own the rights to them or they are live performances controlled through exclusive agreements with their artists, which is why we reinstated it,” stated YouTube.

Megaupload had produced the video for $3 million. All of the celebrities had signed waivers too. Megaupload, based in Hong Kong, claims in a federal lawsuit on Monday that the take-down of the video was a “sham.” They are demanding unspecified damages from the music label that had the video taken down. Megaupload claims that the music label had violated a provision in copyright law that forbids faulty copyright claims.

Megaupload has 50 million daily users and the recording industry believes that many of their visitors are music pirates. Universal Music used YouTube’s content filters to have the video removed shortly after Megaupload added the video. Universal never said why they had the video removed.

However Universal believes that Megaupload is not entitled to monetary damages because Google’s private system doesn’t count as an official takedown notice under the DMCA. This makes them immune from legal liability. The lawsuit is currently pending.

[Wired]

Oh Snap! Tables Have Turned As Megaupload Sues Universal Records.

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:51:37 +0000

Megaupload is a popular file sharing service that is suing record label company Universal Music Group (UMG). Last week Megaupload put together a video that went on the offensive against the recording industry and it featured several big name artists, but Universal Music Group had it taken down. Artists such as Kanye West, P. Diddy, Chris Brown, Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray, Mary J. Blige, The Game, Will.i.am, and Alicia Keys was on the video singing their praises of Megaupload. Many of these artists have contracts with UMG.

UMG said that the video violated their copyright. Megaupload said that they have individual agreements with all of those artists. The RIAA is worried that Megaupload is used illegally for sharing copyrighted music. But Megaupload says that they block users who upload copyrighted material. As a response to the video take-down, Megaupload filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group in federal court. This is an interesting case because normally we hear about how music labels are suing and often do not find themselves on the defensive side.

[Gizmodo]

Google Reportedly Nearing Agreement With Universal Music Group

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:04:20 +0000

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is getting close to making an agreement with securing songs from Universal Music Group for their new music service according to sources with Bloomberg. The deal may be signed as early as tomorrow. Google is actually hosting a music event in Los Angeles tomorrow. EMI Group is already working with Google according to Bloomberg sources.

It is believed that Google will be opening a music download store to allow copies of songs to be stored and accessed from multiple devices. Google Music will be integrated into the Google+ social network according to people.

[Bloomberg]

Apple Signs Sony, EMI, and Warner For Cloud Music Service

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 20 May 2011 18:52:41 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has signed EMI, Warner Music, and Sony for their cloud music service. The only major music label left to sign is Universal Music Group. Universal is believed to be signing very soon. Both Amazon.com and Google launched cloud music services without support from any of the major music labels. The Apple iCloud service is believed to launch at the WWDC on June 6th. [TUAW]

Apple Negotiating Unlimited Music Downloads

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:34:48 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in negotiations with major music companies to give customers easier access to the music that they have purchased across multiple devices. Apple is negotiating with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group.

What this means is that if you lose the purchased music files from iTunes through your MacBook, you can download them again for free on your iPad. Apple became the largest U.S. music retailer in 2008, beating Wal-Mart.

Personally I think offering the ability to sync your music across multiple devices would be a good thing for the industry. If people knew that you can download music again that you purchased, then they would be encouraged to pay for more music instead of stealing it.

[Bloomberg]

50 Cent Bashing TVs With A Baseball Bat As A Promo For Vevo [Video]

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:43:12 +0000

Vevo is geared to launch tomorrow. As many of you know Vevo is going to be the Hulu of music videos. This means that those of you that are sick of MTV playing more reality shows than music videos these days will finally be able to get your fill of music videos again in one central place. Sony, Universal Music Group, and EMI Music have all agreed to place music video clips on Vevo too. YouTube technology will be used to power the video streaming. In order to promote the new service, Vevo has given 50 Cent a baseball bat to bash up some TVs playing his music video. Just in case you don’t get the metaphor in the video, Vevo wants you to stop watching music videos on TV and come to their website instead.

Vevo Launching On December 8

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:13:55 +0000

Vevo is an upcoming music video website that will be similar to Hulu. Rio Caraeff is the head of Vevo and the company is rumored to have raised $300 million. The company expects to stream about 450 million videos per month. The company will be ran by about 45 people initially.

Vevo is co-owned by Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Abu Dhabi Media. Vevo will be powered by YouTube’s technology and they will be sharing ad revenue with each other. Vevo will be launching officially on December 8.

Google Taking On iTunes By Striking Music Deal With Four Major Labels

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:45:12 +0000

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is challenging Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) by selling music. Google spent the last several weeks preparing deals with the four major music labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, EMI, and Universal Music Group. The new Google service is expected to be called Google Audio.

When Google Audio launches, I wouldn’t be surprised if YouTube changes their default music purchase promotion to their own service. Currently when watching music videos on YouTube, there is a link to buy the song on iTunes or Amazon.com.

I don’t expect Google to do very well in this service because iTunes has already monopolized the music download market. iTunes is the number one music retailer in the world, even beating Wal-Mart. Google attempted to challenge iTunes by selling videos through Google Video, but it did not have much of a business impact.

Judge Rules Against Vivendi In Veoh Case; Ruled Veoh Satisfied DMCA Criteria

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:09:27 +0000

“Veoh has shown that when it did acquire knowledge of allegedly infringing material — whether from DMCA notices, informal notices, or other means — it expeditiously removed such material, and UMG has failed to rebut that showing,” stated a court order by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The Court made a ruling against Universal Music Group for its 2007 lawsuit against Veoh Networks Inc. Whenever Veoh received a DMCA takedown notie, they quickly reacted and removed the material.

UMG failed to show an appropriate rebuttal of Veoh’s proactive removal of copyrighted material. Universal said that the ruling was “wrong” and that they plan to appeal. “The balance between copyright holders and technology that Congress sought in enacting the DMCA has been upended by this decision,” stated Universal Music. The Veoh vs. Universal Music lawsuit was closely watched by media companies because Viacom has a pending lawsuit against Google over copyright material being uploaded on YouTube.

Dmitry Shapiro, the founder of Veoh said that the lawsuit was costly and dragged on for two years. Veoh has venture funding from Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Spark Capital, Intel, etc.

Veoh raised about $70 million in total funding and is not profitable as of yet, but they expected to be by the second quarter of 2010. Veoh is exploring the possibilities of either selling themselves or raising additional investment.