Has Google Gone Too Far? Indie Labels Say it’s Crunch Time for the New Economy

Indie music labels are tired of dealing with tech giants, like Google, who are trying to force labels to sign unfair terms.

A real time example of this is happening now with an upcoming Spotify-like streaming service that YouTube will be offering.  They allegedly are forcing the smaller labels to sign terms for the new service that are far inferior to those offered to the big three labels.

The “big boys” may be receiving huge cash transfers, advances, minimum guarantees etc. while indie labels do not.

To make matters worse, labels were reportedly approached individually (19 independent music groups confirmed this) rather than through their collective licensing agency Merlin (likely to minimize the collective power that Indie Labels actually have) and offered inferior and non-negotiable contracts.

Youtube allegedly  threatened to “block” the labels content from YouTube’s video service if they refused the non-negotiable terms and didn’t sign the deals.

Mark Chung (formerly of German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten  and now a music publisher) says that “It’s a service we can ill afford to be removed from” and “I can not think of a more obvious abuse of a market dominating position that we have here.”

Needles to say, this is an urgent issue for indie labels. Several indie music groups (e.g. UK trade body AIM, Brussels-based IMPALA) said they will write to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition  to seek emergency measures.  A press conference was already held in London to address this issue as well.

Labels’ reps are seeking emergency action against Google from Europe’s anti-competition authorities, and called for the directorate-general to investigate the [unfair] market leverage  that Google has over indie labels.