Microsoft Ups The Ante

CNET: Adding to our recent post about Apple's nod to independent artists and as if on cue, Microsoft has also suddenly agreed to provide indies with a greater royalty rate from online music sales...According to the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) - which is a new trade group for independent labels - indies currently account for 27.5 percent of music sales in the US, and up to one-third of online listening on Internet radio and other venues...With numbers like that - this growing segment is getting harder and harder to discriminate against in regards to royalty rates for digital downloads...Especially now that they have an industry trade group to help represent them.

According to A2IM director Don Rose, "Microsoft has also agreed to bring small labels as close to parity with the majors as possible, both for its existing download service and the subscription service it plans to launch later this year." The uplifting news comes after years of being treated as second-class citizens by the major online music services, but these are smart moves by Apple and Microsoft as they strategize on how to become more "indie-friendly." This is surely the best thing they could have done to improve relations, because the music world has changed dramatically since iTunes...Peter Gordon, president of Thirsty Ear Recordings adds, "If you look at the confluence of factors in the market, you have the majors retreating and trying to develop a strategy, and you have indies being able to expand in the market."