Sony BMG to Attack Russian Pirates
One of the global musical majors, Sony BMG, launches the Runet sale of its catalogue. It could be a milestone in the history of Russia’s Internet, as only the native rightholders and some independent foreign labels have been entering into the license agreements with Internet sellers of music.
Sony BMG will set to selling music via Russia’s Internet in December or January, said Denis Komarovsky, the managing director at Russia’s office of the company. Russian sellers of music via the Internet (negotiations are underway with Janga!, mp3.ru and AudioFind) could get access to the files of Sony BMG and sell music at $0.5 to $0.6 per a track. The price for video clips hasn’t been determined so far. Overall, they could count on 100,000 music tracks and around 5,000 video clips.
The choice of the time for Sony BMG’s arrival on our market is easy to explain. First, the amendments to the Act on Copyright and Allied Rights that came in force September 1 extended the copyright to the text and/or music files appeared in the Internet. The second reason is probably emergence of legal and paid-up musical Internet resources here, which popularity is increasing.
So far, the respective license agreements have been concluded only with the Russian rightholders or independent foreign labels (Orchard, for instance). As to the annual potential of this market, it is estimated at no less than $150 million.
The main point, however, is the share of legal product on it. Nowadays, 97 percent of all music distributed via Runet is of pirate origin, the analysts specify, while the worth of the legal market is said to be below $1 million a year.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 05, 2006
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