Recent government action in the United States has dramatically increased the fees internet radio companies must pay to play music - both commerical and independent.

While this may sound like a good thing for independent musicians, I believe it threatens the future of internet radio.

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Yep, that’s right. I had to check the date, but it WAS April 2nd yesterday - wasn’t it?!

So, it’s true.

Finally, the music industry (well, EMI anyway) has listened to what music lovers, fans, independent artists and neighbours dogs have been saying for years… “Give us DRM-free downloads!”

In what could turn out to be a watershed moment in music history, EMI and Apple have agreed a distribution deal that will see the entire EMI catalogue available on iTunes WITHOUT any form of copy protection or Digital Rights Management (DRM).

It’s fantastic news for consumers - and lets hope the other 3 majors follow suit, but what does it mean for artists, in particular independents?

We already know iTunes is looking at selling independent music sometime soon. Could a similar deal be offered direct to artists? As an independent you can already sell your DRM-free tracks with many online stores - but I think many would find the lure of being on iTunes pretty irresistable, given their near 85% share of digital music sales.

That is, of course, if they were non-exclusive contracts…

TimesOnline recently reported on the reinvention of SonyBMG, and it’s an interesting development in the online music arena.

After what feels like forever (and I suppose it is by online music standards), the 2nd biggest record company has finally ditched it’s requirement for bands and artists to send in demo CDs. Instead, they now want demo tracks uploading on specially created websites.

They’ve gone further… they also want to the let the general public (ie. your potential purchasers) vote for the bands they think should be signed. It’s an interesting idea, and it’ll be worth watching to see what happens.

Of course, major labels being major labels - it’s not all happy news. According to Ged Doherty, Chief Executive of SonyBMG Europe, “By 2010 income from CDs will be down 50 per cent. The old world is gone for ever.”

“We need to enter into a new relationship with our artists, where they see us as partners rather than the enemy”. 

Loosely translated: they want more of an artists non-recorded music revenue (e.g. ticket sales, merchandise, etc), and they’ll give you a better percentage on your recorded music sales. Here’s Ged again.. “I’m willing to give up more of my revenue if artists are willing to give up theirs”.

Hold on, didn’t you just say recorded music revenues would be down by 50% !?

You can read the complete article here, and if you’d like to submit your demo online, you should visit either www.columbiademos.co.uk or www.rcademos.co.uk.