First of all let me make it clear that I am not talking about music released
through iTunes, Napster or similar, which invariably are commercial
releases, available in most retail stores, being released on the net.
What I would like to get a consensus of opinion on is those releases which
are intended for release on the net and will only ever be released in this
format.
There is a school of thought which says that by virtue of the fact that it
is released on the web, then it is a worldwide release and, therefore,
available to everyone who has access to the internet.
Another school of thought is that it is released in the country in which the
record label or host server is situated. Using this argument, if the host
label is in the USA, then that release is USA. If elsewhere, then that
country takes precedence.
Now, I am not trying to appear facetious, but using this argument, we could
have a long string of release dates, such as:
Release Date: USA 1.1.2006
UK 1.1.2006
Germany 1.1.2006
France 1.1.2006
Japan 1.1.2006
And all would be correct under present guidelines.
However, my argument is that if a piece of music is released on the
internet, then the intention is that it is equally available to all users of
the internet, and that to me means "worldwide", notwithstanding the fact
that the originator may be USA or UK based. That is irrelevant. Indeed,
the fact that the label is based in a specific country can be referred to in
an annotation.
With the advent of more and more music being released only on the internet,
we need to formulate a policy to deal with them and not leave it to chance.
May I have your thoughts on this please?
Joan
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