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At 21 minutes long Vivian Girls‘ debut album is over almost before it begins; it flashes by in a cloud of sludgy distortion and hissy noise. The trio belongs to a proud heritage of noise pop that started (as do so many things) with the Velvet Underground, went through to the Shop Assistants and early My Bloody Valentine in the mid-’80s, and continued on to Black Tambourine and Tiger Trap in the late ’90s. Along with current bands like Times New Viking, Vivian Girls take their cues from their predecessors and cover their melodies in fuzzy gunk. It’s a winning formula, as the bands mentioned previously have proven. Vivian Girls don’t add much to the formula here as they race through the ten songs at a breathless pace, submerging the guitars in a sludgy murk and barely pausing for hooks. The vocals sound rushed and off-key, the harmonies are flat at times, and the drums often fall behind the beat as the rest of the band races for the finish line. If you demand precision and timing from your pop music, you’ll be aghast at the trio’s lack of professionalism. But what Vivian Girls sacrifice in chops, they gain back double in energy and immediacy. The sound of three people ripping through hooky tunes without regard for pleasantries and taste is one of the joys of rock & roll, and Vivian Girls do satisfy on that account. The album could have used more variation; the only ballad on the album (”Where Do You Run”) is one of the highlights, and proof that the band doesn’t need to bash everything out all the time. The bashing sounds pretty good, though, and a couple of the songs like “Tell the World” and “Wild Eyes” match up well with the best work of their influences. This is a fine introduction to the group, and if Vivian Girls stay out of fancy studios and keep cranking out good songs, they might come up with something as classic as Will Anything Happen or Tiger Trap.

Sensing an inefficiency in the market, an Israeli start-up hopes to do for music licensing what eBay did for just about everything else, by creating a database-driven environment to introduce recording artists to advertisers, videogame developers, filmmakers and hobbyists that cuts through the licensing world's red tape. Ostensibly, it should now be possible for anyone who owns music to license it for a profit -- and for anyone who needs legally licensed music for a video project to get it without a lot of hassle.

"I like to think that we reinvented the model," YouLicense CEO Maor Ezer. "There's no barrier. I don't tell any indie artist, 'you're not welcome.' Everybody can sign in -- that's the big, big, big difference (between us and) all the other companies out there... on the other side, we have buyers from TV, film, videogames and ads coming in and doing business directly with the content owners."

Since there's no statutory licensing rate for synchronization rights (using music with a video), each of these deals must be negotiated individually. Since that clearly presents challenges on both sides of the licensing equation, there's plenty of room for YouLicense to increase efficiency in the market, the same way eBay did for used goods.

Artists and other copyright holders can offer their music on YouLicense for free, paying only a 9 percent commission fee when their stuff gets license --  similar to how its competitor PumpAudio does things. Or, using a new model recently implemented on the site, they can pay a flat fee of $30 (individuals) or $60 (organizations) to offer an unlimited amount of music through the service in a six month period, without paying any commissions.

Potential licensees search for suitable music using a number of parameters (above right) or submit requests for specific types of music before it is recorded in the Opportunities section (below right). If they find something that works, they make an offer describing what they want to do with the song and how much they're willing to pay. The owner of the song (sound recording and publishing rights) gets an email alert with a link to the offer and can negotiate, accept or decline it directly through the site.

Once both sides agree on a price, the licensing fee transfers via PayPal and YouLicense automatically generates an agreement including the specific terms of the deal, saving both sides significant legal expense. The licensee gets a download link and voila -- the transaction is complete. All licenses are non-exclusive, meaning that the artist loses no rights when someone licenses their song, beat or ringtone.

Ezer and company, who received $1 million in funding in August, initially went after production houses as potential customers. But, he says, they had limited success with that strategy and soon discovered that video producers from the long tail were also interested in licensing music for their projects. Ultimately, this generated interest from larger music licensors.

"Suddenly, out of word of mouth, a lot of these long tail guys came in (saying), 'I'm a film school student, I want it for my wedding DVD or for my photography website for between $10 and $200,' and we're seeing many of these each day," he says. "Now, we're putting ourselves in a space that we didn't even think of, ahead of time."

Once those smaller licensors were onboard, larger licensing firms such as INgrooves (Madlib), Revolver Records (The Stone Roses) and DashGo (Cold War Kids) became interested. Without such a system, they wouldn't be able to reach the long tail of the music licensing market. "When I sit with a big company and they tell me, 'we don't need you to get us film studios and ads, we've got them," explained Ezer. "But they have no wedding videos, and no websites, or Flash intros."

Not everyone feels like paying for legally licensed music for their wedding video, of course, but in many cases, people appear more than happy to pay up if it means zero associated legal liability.

"You'd be surprised -- we had a schoolteacher license music for a presentation at his school for $85," said Ezer. "He's doing it in front of 400 people and he wants to be perfectly legal, he doesn't want the school to come to him [with questions]." Photographers are also likely to license music for their portfolio sites, says Ezer, because they themselves license their photos in a similar way. For $20-$30, they can spruce up their photo slideshows with legally licensed music for a year, allowing an indie musician to buy another week's worth of ramen noodles and maybe a couple of burritos.

In today's music economy, every bit counts.

See Also:

• 'Hockey Night In Canada' Is Over, Thanks to Licensing Spat
• Licensing Fees Force Pandora to Shut Down U.K. Music Service
• Muxtape To Relaunch in New Form After RIAA Backstab
• First Paris, Now This: Jackson Browne Sues John McCain
• Hagar Cool With McCain's 'Right Now' Appropriation

A Universal Music acaba de estabelecer um acordo de licenciamento com o Dada.net um serviço de música móvel detido resultante de uma joint-venture entre a Dada USA e pela Sony Music Entertainment. A partir de hoje, os utilizadores norte-americanos poderão descarregar para o seu computador ficheiros de música em formato MP3 sem DRM de artistas como Lil Wayne e Ne-Yo e transferi-los posteriormente para os seus telemóveis. 

Deste modo, o Dada.net passa a contar com o catálogo das duas maiores editoras discográficas do mundo, a Universal e a Sony mas o objectivo dos responsáveis pelo serviço é estabelecer contratos com outras majors e editoras independentes. O Dada.net oferece uma subscrição mensal que por dez dólares dá direito a 15 MP3s com bitrate de 256 Kbps, ringtones, wallpapers ou jogos.

Apesar de não ser uma oferta por aí além, os preços praticados pelo Dada.net (67 cêntimos por faixa) são bastante inferiores aos tradicionais 99 cêntimos aplicados pela Apple na loja online do iTunes. Para além disso, a Dada está a planear oferecer suporte para o descarregamento directo dos MP3s para telemóveis dentro de algumas semanas, de modo a concorrer directamente com a versão móvel do iTunes para o iPhone.

A assinatura deste acordo mais não é do que a continuação lógica da estratégia seguida até agora pela Universal Music no sentido de reduzir a influência e o peso do iTunes no mercado da música online. Só assim se explica a teimosia da maior companhia discográfica do mundo em disponibilizar o seu catálogo em formato sem DRM para venda na loja da Apple, mantendo a marca da maçã agarrada à música com restrições anti-cópia. Ainda no mês passado, a UMG assinou outro acordo de licenciamento com a 7Digital para a  Europa (abrangendo Portugal).

(via Digital Music News)