Lord Carter: clarity on digital rights pricing is critical for new business growth

Nick | 12 Mar 2009, 11:58

Giving evidence to MPs this week, Lord Carter, the UK communications minister, agreed with suggestions from other online music services that the dispute could foreshadow more rows over how to price content.

“We clearly need some legislative backstop for the protection of rights,“ said Lord Carter. “In addition we need a mechanism for the distributors and rights owners to work out new business models for how rights get priced and accessed in a digital world.“

Commenting in The Financial Times Martin Stiksel, co-founder of website Last.fm, said: “We are obviously watching the outcome of this discussion very closely. Online music is not a burgeoning industry any more, I would have thought it would become more transparent by now. But it is getting more expansive and prohibitive for new services to get into market. That is going to stifle innovation. The entry stakes have been massively raised all around.“

He added that although it was now harder for legal sites to compete with pirate ones, PRS for Music was more progressive than other European Union agencies.