Led Zeppelin Agrees To Digital Distribution

cphilo points out a NYTimes article on Led Zeppelin's decision to sell its music online. The group is one of the last superstar acts to hold out against the digital tide. There was a months-long, trans-Atlantic bidding war for the rights to license the band's catalog. In the US, the only digital holdouts that outsell Led Zeppelin are the Beatles and Garth Brooks.

Re:Garth Brooks may never go digital

[morgan_greywolf]

Um, Walmart.com does have an online music store. And, IIRC, [walmart.com]they recently announced they are offering DRM-free music [officialares.com], as well.

Beatles?

[Anonymous Coward]

the only digital holdouts that outsell Led Zeppelin are the Beatles and Garth Brooks.

Apple, the recording company that had contractual control over The Beatles, held an auction years ago and sold off the copyrights to Beatles and other groups. Michael Jackson purchased most of the Beatles copyrights. He also owns copyrights to the music of many other artists and whomever wants the rights to use those will have to negotiate with him, at least till his control of the copyrights expire.

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright in sound recordings expires either 50 years after the recording is made, if the recording is published during that period, 50 years from the publication or if during the initial 50 years the recording is played in public or communicated to the public, 50 years from said communication or playing to the public if the author of the broadcast is an EEA citizen. Otherwise duration under the laws of the country of which the author is a national applies, unless such a duration would be longer than offered in UK law, or be contrary to treaty obligations of the UK in force on 29 October 1993.

from wikipedia [wikipedia.org] Led Zeppelin is still played regularly, so it's not becoming public domain anytime soon. I don't know why USA copyright laws are relevant(both led zeppelin and their record label are based in the UK), but they don't only last 17 years as you said, they last 70 years AFTER the artist's death.

Re:Having grown up

[Tyler Eaves]

I think it has more to do with the state of Led Zeppelin on CD. The currently released CDs are a circa 1992 masters. Hardly the peak of sonic fidelity, although the situation isn't nearly as dire, as, for instance the Beatles.

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[Peaker]

14+14, I think.

Re:Beatles?

[Waffle Iron]

Michael Jackson purchased most of the Beatles copyrights. He also owns copyrights to the music of many other artists and whomever wants the rights to use those will have to negotiate with him, at least till his control of the copyrights expire.

IIRC, Michael Jackson purchased the publishing rights to the songs, which controls royalties on covers made by other artists, usage in ads, etc. The copyrights on the original Beatles' audio recordings, which determines online availability, are still under control of record labels. (And the earliest Beatles' recording copyrights were set to expire soon in the UK unless that got the Mickey Mouse treatment since I last checked).

The plus side of their Luddism

[Dachannien]

I was annoyed that Led Zeppelin wasn't on iTunes a while back, but it did lead me to the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Led Zeppelin cover album. Highly recommended (and they did a Pink Floyd cover album, too).

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[CodeBuster]

The Copyright Act of 1976 [wikipedia.org] extended the duration of all copyrights in force as of 1976 to the life of the original author plus fifty (50) years and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [wikipedia.org] (aka The Mickey Mouse Protection Act) extended that term by an additional twenty (20) years. If the surviving members of the band continue to enjoy an average wealthy first world life expectency then the Led Zeppelin catalog should begin entering the public domain some time around the year 2093, by which time it is very likely that none of us will be around to enjoy them in that capacity (unless you buy into the whole singularity nonsense).

Re:Holdouts because of one song?

[agrippa_cash]

A couple years back, Plant pledged to some Seattle(?) public radio station after they cited as a positive fact the that they'd never play Stairway on public radio. Clearly, he isn't a huge fan of the song either. The main reasons Led Zeppelin didn't release their songs as singles during the 70's were 1) Jimmy Page was a tightwad and wanted everyone to buy the whole album and 2) LZ wanted people to listen to the whole album, not just a song by itself. It will be interesting to see if the songs are available individually or per album or per album side even. I used to love the Zepp with a passion (still like them more than Tool ;)), and part of me wishes they'd charge serious $$ to play their big hits so that radio stations would mix up their LZ playlists. Also, I'd love for them to clean up some bootlegs and release them. Maybe this method of distribution will create the incentive.