At WWDC 2011 Apple announced a new features of iTunes, iTunes Match, that has since been much talked about. iTune Match allows users to legitimize their less-than-legal music collection for a $25 per year fee. Basically, iTunes Match goes through your song collection and compares it to its iTunes catalog. Any songs with a match are added automatically to your iCloud library. This means that you only have to upload songs that are not found in iTunes.
Interestingly, there is one company that is opting out of iCloud and the iTunes Match service. Numero Group, a small Chicago-based music label, has decided it does not want to take any part in iTunes Match, and they have explained their reasoning in a blog post.
Basically, Numero Group has stated that they feel that the laws that are already in place to protect copyrights for songs are sufficient. By participating in iCloud, they would be being pushing aside the laws and hurting their constituents. Furthermore, Numero goes on to state that they believe that the big music labels are not going to receive any real monetary gain from the arrangement with Apple.
The Los Angeles Times reached out to Rick Sevier, head of the Numero Group, to get some clarification of The Numero Group’s stance regarding iCloud. Sevier offered the analogy to the Los Angeles Times that Apple is offering an original painting in place of the counterfeit copies.
I can agree that perhaps iCloud’s iTunes Match may be be a bit under-priced given what one could effectively get with the service. However, I am not sure how much Numero would have received. I was looking through its catalog and I could not find a single artist that I had actually heard a song from. Granted, I am not heavy into the Blues and Soul scene, which is primarily what the Numero Group publishes.
Only time will tell if any other smaller publishers decide to not partake in iCloud.
Article Via TUAW
Photo Credit: Numero Group
