Legal Music Streaming Site Launches In France

An anonymous reader writes "The French website Deezer.com has struck a deal with the SACEM (the French equivalent to the RIAA) and is now legally providing Internet users around the world with more than 100,000 full songs, streamed on demand and without restrictions. The site, formerly named Blogmuzik.net, had had to close down last March under pressure from the recording industry."

it's cool i've tried it

no more of that 30 second preview nonsense- listen to the song if you like it you add it- no restrictions on the number of songs/artist like finetune either. hmmm guess the RIAA can't do shit about it now can they?

Re:it's cool i've tried it

no more of that 30 second preview nonsense- listen to the song if you like it you add it- no restrictions on the number of songs/artist like finetune either. hmmm guess the RIAA can't do shit about it now can they?

I tried a couple of albums at work late last week and then at home on Friday morning. Both connections (work routinely allows for 3MB/s from Apple -- just for reference and I have a 4200/500 DSL connection at home) were laggy with the music frequently pausing during the stream. I felt like I was using RealAudio back in 1999.

I wasn't impressed at all. My co-workers all use free.napster.com which works much better. YMMV.

Re:it's cool i've tried it

with the music frequently pausing during the stream.

This is the problem with the internet bottleneck. There is lots of complaints that BitTorrent is sucking all the bandwidth. A file downloaded can and often is played many times. Think of the internet meltdown if you switched all the BitTorrent downloaders to 100% streaming instead.

To fit the bandwidth now requires very high lossy streaming formats or a serious boost in bandwidth.

Welcome back to the days of Buffering............Buffering...........Buffering ..........Buffering........

Re:it's cool i've tried it

The site is hosted in France, where bandwidth is cheap and plentiful. They are supporting the load just fine over here. Getting traffic from New York to Minnesota is the more likely bottleneck rather than France to NY. OTOH, their servers seem to be completely overloaded under the slashdot effect, I think their massive press push has come back to bury them.

I suspect that since they just scored this licensing agreement after a long legal struggle under new french obligatory licensing laws, they haven't had time to upgrade their servers or get better load offset architecture in place. Paying lawyers who saved their asses probably is a high priority for them.

I need to clear up the trollish flamebaiting headline, as the SACEM is nothing like the RIAA. They are the only group that collects royalties for authors and songwriters in France, and by law most of the money collected has to be distributed, despite their legendary corruption and incompetence. The SACEM has been forced to provide licensing to anyone who wants it, and I think Deezer was one of the first test cases for internet distribution. By signing a deal with SACEM, Deezer can now play any and all French artists, and any other country's artists who register with SACEM. This doesn't cover performance royalties, which are separate, all the songs on Deezer are performed by the original author. Since the Wu-Tang Clan (who I just saw on the site to use as an example) has registered with SACEM, ODB and MethodMan will get quarterly or yearly royalty checks directly from SACEM. Bands covering other author's songs can't be played under this agreement, at least according to the French press covering this.

It remains to be seen if Deezer can make enough to cover the royalties they've negotiated with SACEM. They were really over a legal barrel and if they hadn't signed they risked prison time for piracy. They could be a dotbomb2.0 fizzle, since they haven't dropped all the extraneous vowels from their name.

the AC

Re:it's cool i've tried it

SomaFM [somafm.com] provides nice streams in various formats that can be played by free software. Lately I've taken to listening on my phone while on the road. If only I could make my phone's media player not timeout every 5 minutes, I could probably cancel my satellite radio subscription...

Re:it's cool i've tried it

He means free as in hairy naked hippies frolicking across the meadow, not free as in stealing a Faberge egg from a museum by executing an implausibly complex plan involving a variety of non-existent high-tech gadgets.

We the Free people of the world thank France

Merci pour les emissions gratuits, mes amis!

Information and music just wants to be free.

But...this doesn't make sense!

Are these the same innovation-stifling, reactionary French I keep seeing on Fox News and in the business press?

I mean, free music? That REEKS of socialism. I, for one, am enough of a proud American to do whatever the music lobbyists of this greatest country in the world demands of me.

What?

So err does this mean the RIAA has surrendered to uhm France? Doesn't this rip a hole in the time-space continuum or something?

Goodbye Pandora, Bonjour Deezer?

Due to recent Copyright Royalty Board rulings, the ambitious Pandora's Box [pandora.com] project no longer allows streaming of music to those outside the USA due to copyright and licensing issues. These rulings affect all internet-based radio stations. So, is it good to know the USA's own rules are enabling other countries to profit at their expense?

32kbps MP3

While I am not one of those people who claims to be able to tell the difference between 192kbps and 256kbps MP3s, a sampling rate of 32kbps is obviously degraded even to my aging ears.

Sweet mama ! it really works well

I get in, i type in "smokie" and voila, 14 songs pop up, groovy too. i click, and it plays, and it plays well, and it doesnt even require one single bit of anything - it has its own player in the site and plays well - actually at the same time with winamp playing some other thing.

its fast also.

Could me more secure...

When you register they go through the motions of applying a secure sign-up process by not activating you until you've clicked the activation link in the email they send you. But with the activation link being deezer.com/confirm.php?email=, why bother?

Oh, and after you've clicked the link they email you your password in the clear.

Friendly to what browser(s)?

Looked for a couple of songs using opera, didn't find (not unusual) but could not back out.
Maybe the content will increase in the future. The songs I was looking for were in french so I thought they might have them.

I hope this is the start of a trend.

Worshipping Lord Cthulhu pays off...

Just when I turn to a Cthulhu cult for all my spiritual needs, I find http://www.jamendo.com/ [jamendo.com] and now this! On the same day!

Phnglui Mglwnafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah Nagl F'htagn!

imeem.com

You might have missed this, but imeem.com has been offering free streaming of music from Warner Brothers as well as many smaller labels for some time now. It's all advertisign supported and in reality it's more like 'youtube for music' where music gets checked on upload to see if it's licensed and if it's part of the deals they've signed then any user on the site can hear it full length.

Bitchin

Period XD

SACEM != RIAA

SACEM is the French performing rights organization, equivalent to either ASCAP or BMI in the US, or SOCAN in Canada. They're not a lobby group comprised of commercial record labels. They collect royalties from broadcasts and performances on behalf of French musicians.

Re:SACEM != RIAA

"SACEM is the French performing rights organization, equivalent to either ASCAP or BMI in the US, or SOCAN in Canada. They're not a lobby group comprised of commercial record labels. They collect royalties from broadcasts and performances on behalf of French musicians."

This bears amplification.

SACEM, ASCAP/BMI, SOCAN, etc.: performing rights organizations which represent artists, composers and lyricists. THE GOOD GUYS.

The French equivalent of the RIAA is the IFPI. The RIAA and the IFPI represent the recording industry. THE BAD GUYS.

Performing rights organizations represent a potential revenue stream for artists, composers and lyricists that the record companies generally don't see and can't touch. You know how we all want the record companies to go away but for artists to be compensated, in a way which doesn't require us to pay for the music? Performing rights organizations are the way that can happen. The summary's statement that SACEM is the equivalent of the RIAA was dangerously misleading.

Making my work day better already:)

wowser. At first i thought this was a bleh. idea. But so far i've listened to a lotta music i've been intending to for ages just sitting here at work. legally for a change too. Internet radio is ok. but after 3 songs i generally through my headphones down in anger as they put something crap on:( The library so far is impressive (IMO)

imeem.com Has Been Doing This In The US For A Whil

You might have missed this imeem.com [imeem.com] has been doing this for a while, as well as the usual selection of indie labels the massive news was that Warner Brothers music has basicly given them streaming rights to their catalog which includes hundreds of mainstream artists. All advertising supported and free (well I guess you have to sign up for an account)

Who the fuck cares

I want all this stuff back online. I want the guitar tabs
and all the stuff that the RIAA has bullied people about for years
with no consideration of fair use.

I could give a crap about little pussy agreements with governments.
Fair use is dead and thats killing the internet

Damn Universal....

Thanks to Universal to order Deezer.com to stop stream their content due to a lack of communication between them. For more information (in french): http://www.freenews.fr/nat/5144-presse-deezer-com- universal-acte-3.html [freenews.fr] The little history is Neuf Cegetel, french ISP, sign a contract with Universal allow their subscribers to download and listen DRM protected music. Deezer.com was associated with Free.fr, another ISP (one of the most important in France), after a strategic "Joke" in press by Free. Now Deezer get the feedback of Free.fr actions..... Please Universal: let us listen free music! I hope my english is not that bad! =)

Excellent....pity it sucks

Colour me unimpressed. First track, and it pauses every 30 seconds for 2-3 seconds (I have 24mb/s of downstream), and the interface is kinda sucky. Still, on the political front, great news.

would've been cool 5 years ago, but . . .

This would've been really cool had it come out about 5 years ago, but today, with all the music videos available on YouTube [youtube.com], who wants to stream the music when you can get the whole music video? Still, I suppose the library might be a little greater, as you can get more than just some of the major, popular songs that music videos are made for,... But still,...

The French equivalent to the RIAA????

"The French website Deezer.com has struck a deal with the SACEM (the French equivalent to the RIAA) and is now legally providing Internet users around the world with more than 100,000 full songs, streamed on demand and without restrictions. The site, formerly named Blogmuzik.net, had had to close down last March under pressure from the recording industry."

Ummm... let me be the first to point out that SACEM is NOT the French equivalent of the RIAA... at least not if they are allowing "more than 100,000 full songs, streamed on demand and without restrictions."

But maybe the RIAA will take a lesson from this and come to their senses and convince their member companies (themselves) to come up with and/or support more viable Internet distribution methods as a business model instead of their current "Sue 'em all and then some more people for good measure" attitude. In addition, their Internet Royalty Arm (SoundExchange) is still leaning the exact opposite way (making such things costly, and waffling back and forth between forcing the websites to add encumbering restrictions to the content - ie: DRM). While SoundExchange seems to be/have waffled on some of that, they are still a far cry from what SACEM seems to be allowing and setting up.

Hopefully this will prove to be enough of a viable business model in France that the RIAA/SoundExchange will take note and head down a different road than their current one...

The French out ahead again

I'm pleased to see that the Europeans are again taking a jump ahead of the colonials.
These days I pretty much exclusively get my music from http://www.jamendo.com/ [jamendo.com] where all the music is free (and much of it is pretty terrible, by the way, but there is also some excellent stuff.)
After observing the *AA fiasco, I've decided to vote with my wallet. Nowadays all my financial contributions are volutary. Jamendo provides me with a way to pay however much I like for the music I like, and just about all of it goes to the artist (for a change.)
Go the French!

The first nickel bag is free...

Imagine if this was all one big devious plot to collect IP addresses, etc., to monitor more closely in the future...

Nah, the RIAA wouldn't be that devious, would it?

Did you read their terms of use?

People who upload music are supposed to have permission from the copyright holder. That means 98% of the mainstream music hosted on their site has been uploaded without permission. No, seriously, this site is just as legal as YouTube.

Sounds fishy

SACEM (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musiques) have been working with the RIAA to shut down allofmp3.com in Russia [lemonde.fr]. SACEM's boss claimed that the Russian's only had rights to exploit the RAO catalogue on Russian territory. Presumably SACEM only has rights to exploit their member's catalogue and then probably only on French soil. According to another article [lemonde.fr] the agreement will be signed in the next few days. As France is a part of the WTO etc. I assume the RIAA will take Deezer/SACEM to court if the agreement exceeds their rights.

Last.fm and Project Playlist

Where do http://www.last.fm/ [www.last.fm] and http://www.projectplaylist.com/ [projectplaylist.com] compare to deezer?

A better recap..

SACEM is NOT the french equivalent to the RIAA !

It is the equivalent of the US-based BMI and ASCAP, and that makes a big difference : SACEM manages the rights of songwriters / composers / publishers, NOT the rights on actual recordings.

This means that what Deezer.com did is a first, necessary but not sufficient step, and at this point they would merely have the right to have someone perform those songs again and re-record them, then stream the result!

What they have yet to do, is to get a deal for the actual rights to the recordings, with the real french equivalent of the RIAA : the SCPP (major labels) and SPPF (independent labels). Not the IFPI (as I've read in another comment) which is just an international club of the RIA*'s.

And that's where it becomes tricky : the Deezer.com announcement comes 2 days after Universal Music France teamed up with France's 3rd largest ISP (neuf.fr, with whom they share the same parent company, Vivendi) to launch a heavily marketed, Windows DRM-based, unlimited music offering.

France's 2nd ISP, Free, probably the most innovative, net-savvy, and the last independent one, immediately decided to promote Deezer.com to steal Neuf's thunder.

Now, Universal is saying Deezer.com is illegal, and they're threatening to sue them and any entity that would overtly promote it.
They are technically right, but obviously you have to read between the lines to understand the real motive behind that potential lawsuit...

Streaming

I see alot of posts above complaining about slow streaming and buffering, but I have to say here in the UK it seems to be working fine. The whole song loads up in 50 seconds.

Not so simple

Actually Deezer is still negociating with major and indie record companies, according to an article [lemonde.fr] from mainstream newspaper Le Monde (in french). The deal with SACEM was just the beginning of a long process, IMO. In addition, a flaw in the streaming system has been discovered, allowing users to directly download mp3 from the site, according to the same article. Bet this is not going to help the negociations.

Did anyone else read...

ESCAM instead of SACEM?

Perhaps it was too good to be true...

The site worked great a not long ago, but now seems to be loading more slowly. I guess the popularity of this service may make it near unusable if they don't work out their bandwidth issues.

Not he RIAA

Just so you now, the SACEM is not the French RIAA.

The SACEM ("Societe des Auteurs Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9_des _auteurs%2C_compositeurs_et_%C3%A9diteurs_de_musiq ue [wikipedia.org]) is the organisation that takes care of collecting and managing artists' fees. Everytime you use a song from someone else (play it with your band, use it as a DJ...), this is where you have to pay in order for the artist to be rewarded.

This explains why they were able to strike a deal with them. Majors (Universal for example) are actually not happy about that site and are menacing to sue them (the deals are not signed yet, but the site is already up and running).

Re:So where is the money coming from?

Our concept is simple:
-Give consumers a full and free access to all their favourite songs
-Pay artists and their producers through a revenue share based on our advertising revenues
- Help discovering new artists through a wide audience

from the about us [deezer.com] page on the site (emphasis mine)

Re:Call me paranoid, but....

Youre right. Get Ackbar on the horn.
 
Something smells fishy and its not his feet.

Bah!

Let them eat cake!

Re:Anything else?

You are behind the times. Euro-bashing is no longer necessary, friendly administrations have been elected in Germany and France. ;-)

Re:So where is the money coming from?

Probably much the same way they get income from broadcast radio?

Re:Call me paranoid, but....

Nope. It's like radio, except from now on you can select the songs you want to hear yourself. Viva la Revolution!