MUSIC ONLINE : DUTCH AUTHORS' SOCIETY SIGNS WITH WARNER.

Following in the footsteps of the British authors' society MCPS-PRS, then its French (SACEM), German (GEMA), Swedish (STIM) and Spanish (SGAE) counterparts, the Dutch authors' society Buma-Stemra has just announced its membership of the pan-European digital licences' initiative launched in 2006 by Warner Chappell Music, the publishing branch of Warner Music Group.

With this agreement, Buma-Stemra will be able, like its counterparts before it, to issue pan-European usage licences both online and for mobile phones for the Anglo-American repertoire of Warner Chappell, which includes popular stars such as Dido, Dr Dre, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Green Day and Led Zeppelin.

Buma-Stemra represents some 16,000 rights holders in the Netherlands. It was one of the main critics of the consequences of the European Commission's 2005 recommendation on the cross-border management of authors' rights for music online. To recall, the objective of the EU executive was to bring an end to the monopoly that authors' societies benefit from. These societies represent their national artists in their own country, but also in other member states in virtue of reciprocal bilateral agreements. In its recommendation, the Commission proposed creating a system of multi-territory and pan-European licences, letting artists choose the collective rights manager responsible for representing them, independent of their country of residence.

All the national societies flayed this initiative, non-binding but useable by claimants before...