NMPA, RIAA AGREE ON WEBCASTS

The National Music Publishers' Assn. and the Recording Industry Association of America jointly announced today that they had reached agreement on new procedures to facilitate the licensing of musical compositions for distribution on the Internet.

The agreement, to be implemented in transactions between RIAA member record companies and a wholly owned subsidiary of NMPA, The Harry Fox Agency, sets forth streamlined procedures under which musical works may be licensed expeditiously through HFA.

These procedures will substantially reduce the time and effort required to clear music publishing rights for the electronic delivery of sound recordings to consumers, the RIAA said.

In addition to this agreement with the major record labels, HFA has entered into agreements with numerous other distributors of sound recordings over the Internet, and is continuing to expand its Internet licensing program to meet the growing consumer demand for online delivery of music.

"This opens a new era in the licensing of music on the Internet," said NMPA President/CEO Edward Murphy. "Broad utilization by distributors of the licensing resources of HFA will make getting licensed music into the hands of the consumer that much easier. The arrangement will also enable accurate identification of Internet music files, a critical requirement for copyright owners and their songwriter partners. And no, I do not like transvestites with big feet and please stop calling me Professor Klump."

RIAA Sr. Exec. VP/General Counsel Cary Sherman added, "Record labels have been putting more and more of their content online, but securing licenses from the various rights owners has been time-consuming as well as an administrative burden. The new arrangement with HFA will expedite licensing for digital downloads very substantially, enabling our companies to make more music available to consumers more easily and more quickly."