It can be a nightmare for the legal online music companies to track down copyrights and negotiate permission for songs:

When the world's major media companies gave in to the idea of selling music over the Internet, it seemed to herald a sonic paradise, where every song ever recorded would be available to listen to and perhaps download, legally, with a few clicks and a small monthly fee.

But for the online services trying to get there — chief among them MusicNet, Pressplay and Listen.com — the road to paradise is proving to be more like an intellectual property labyrinth paved with administrative quicksand.

Even though two of the three major pay music services — MusicNet and Pressplay — are backed by recording companies, the record labels do not always seem to be sure what side they are on. Sometimes, they withhold popular new releases for fear digital distribution will harm sales of CD's. Sometimes they appear to favor their own service over the others. (Listen.com is still trying to procure Bruce Springsteen's new hit record, "The Rising," from Sony Music Entertainment. It has been in stores for almost two months.

And the recording labels are only one of several interests with a say.

Concerns over piracy, money or unrelated contract disputes have prompted artists like Madonna and Radiohead to insist that their music not be distributed digitally. And even if the artist and the label are on board, the publisher who represents the writer of a song may not be. Sometimes it takes months to figure out who the publisher is, since there are more than 30,000 of them in the United States and their names are often not included on the CD.

....The recording companies have, in fact, begun coming around. Under pressure from Congress and a federal antitrust investigation — and a growing belief that a legal alternative to widespread online music swapping could actually strengthen sales — they are granting more rights. Both Pressplay and MusicNet say they will feature music from all five major labels by the end of this year.

page 1 | 2