Google music - does it spell the end of copyright agencies?

a couple of years ago I put to a global informal group of music industry enthusiasts and experts the notion of a global central registry, similar to a 'global barcode' concept, e.g. every piece of music has a single unique identifier which ties in a registry to the music ownership details and is used by all systems worldwide, and can be used sans intermediaries...... It was dismissed as pie in the sky utopia.

I envisaged a Consumer service copyright model:

A basic process by roles is described for illustrative purposes below. It includes examples of entities currently in operation that perform the same or similar roles.

A Musician (or music entity)
• registers payment details (ie Paypal account) with Payment agency;
• registers music to obtain unique identifier (?) with Registry; and
• release music into various places in the music pool (anywhere music is available online, for example, P2P, online stores, social networks, compact discs which later become online).

A Consumer
• nominates play measurement entity of their choice (this could be a service that streams or play monitor software);
• registers;
• regular utility payment (perhaps via ISP bills or streaming service). Note consumer payments are fixed, not variable upon usage (don't want to turn consumers off listening to music); and
• plays music and details of what is played how often are recorded by play measurement entity.

An ISP or streaming service
• Upon notice from consumer registers them to the play measurement entity to track for central pool; and
• bills consumer and processes 'royalty' funds into the central $ pool.

A Registry
(example: Musicbrainz, Gracenote - GOOGLE?)
• receives song details from musicians and allocates unique identifier; and
• is linked to play measurement entity;

A Play measurement entity
(example: Last.fm, consumer streaming stations such as Pandora, Rhapsody, social.fm, anywhere.fm. These track plays by consumers across all digital music devices)
• records and aggregates songs played by consumer.

A Play measurement aggregator
• periodic aggregation of play measurements; and
• apportion play percentages.

A Payment agency
(example: non-existent although if market issues are addressed (monopoly issues) this is technically possible. Traditionally this is performed by copyright agencies (APRA) and publishers. Existing entities serving similar functions are Paypal and the global Creative Commons)
• Receives play percentage data from play measurement aggregator;
• Receives funds from ISPs/Streaming services; and
• Processes payments to musician.

The process map above highlights that the inclusion of the ISP/streaming service is questionable. It's convenient to add a utility amount onto a utility bill, but perhaps it could be sidestepped and consumers deal directly with a payment agency. Similarly the play measurement aggregator and payment agency could be one entity. Market monopoly concerns may also prevent these two options.

Privacy concerns are minimised because it is voluntary, consumers can opt in. There are sampling concerns, for example only a particular demographic may opt in, and measuring by plays may negatively impact longer songs, but plays measurement could be by time duration rather than number of songs. A significant impediment to this approach is structural, it minimises the need for traditional publishing and copyright agencies because it removes the need for sampling focuses on the end consumer rather than a plethora or devices and platforms. It removes the need of traditional copyright agencies to undertake samples. This currently happens on a country by country basis. This approach could be scaled globally, and it recognises that the online music market is global. There may be country specific regulatory impediments, however Creative Commons has been successful at resolving many of these. Apart from structural issues and roadblocks, a major impediment is consumers. In this process it is the consumer who performs most actions. It is questionable whether consumers would opt into such as system and volunteer payments and play measurement. However the explosive growth of play measurement services shows privacy is not an issue. For example, according to Quantcast.com, Last.fm site hits grew 35% in the United States during February 2008. Last.fm commenced in London and Europe is it’s strongest region. If the alternative is P2P legal action they may be swayed.

Now I may well be putting gold into the horse before the cart, but Google music may be the start of such a thing. But then again, it may not be. But seeing as Google is global, instant and direct, if anyone can do it, perhaps Google might. Initially perhaps not, but further down the track.... perhaps? Structural change unfortunately takes time.