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The Echo Nest partners with EMI (echonest.com)
58 points by thomasswift on Nov 3, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 15 comments



Interesting: EMI ends up being the publisher if you use their licensed music.

See http://developer.echonest.com/sandbox/emi/emi_classics.html, end of section "Approval Process for Application Development".


This is fantastic, but as someone who's playing around with making a music app, I'm still not really able to use it.

The unfortunate fact is if you don't have all the labels on board you're just going to irritate users- they have no idea who is on what label, and why should they?

That said, this is huge step forwards. Hopefully other labels will see the benefits and follow suit- it could make Echo Nest a huge player.



'Lion's share', how appropriate for a hunter turned gamekeeper... does it have a legal definition ?


40%, according to:

http://developer.echonest.com/sandbox/emi/faq.html

How much will a Developer be paid?

A developer will be paid the lion's share of 40% of net revenues derived from the sale of the application. Net revenues means after any application store fees, direct technical costs (e.g. streaming and hosting) and sales tax deductions.


"They can just build. And when they’re done, their creations will go and live in the iTunes, Android, or any other app store, with a clear, pre-established revenue split with EMI."

---From the FAQ---

"How much will a Developer be paid? A developer will be paid the lion's share of 40% of net revenues derived from the sale of the application. Net revenues means after any application store fees, direct technical costs (e.g. streaming and hosting) and sales tax deductions."

"Who else gets a share of that 40%? The Echo Nest will take a small share."

"Who decides what share of the 40% a Developer will get? This will be negotiated between the developer and The Echo Nest, and will depend solely on how much (or little) the application is reliant on The Echo Nest’s tools and APIs. Let’s be clear though – the Developer will be getting most of that 40%."

So you get 40% of the revenue after some unknown and potentially arbitrary fees (remember, EMI will be levy anything they consider "direct technical costs") are taken out, and then Echo Next will take some part (less than "most") of the remaining 40%.

That's a funny definition of a "clear, pre-established revenue split." I guess if you desperately want to use EMI's music catalog in your app, this at least makes it easy to do so.


I don't think you will receive 40%, the way it is worded; "the lion's share of 40% of net revenues" and "Net revenues means after any application store fees, direct technical costs (e.g. streaming and hosting) and sales tax deductions.".

So you will receive an unspecified (but assumed larger) proportion of the 40% but not 40% .


Slight correction: You will receive an unspecified (but assumed larger) proportion of 40% of an unspecified total amount after unspecified deductions.

But hey, it will be the lion's share!


That FAQ is really a great laugh (recommended reading!).

They try a little too hard to justify their absurd terms - which turns the whole thing into satire.


go make an app with another label's content, let me know what you think satire means then


I imagine this is at least part of the reason why echonest got rid of the "found audio" feeds in their API - http://blog.echonest.com/post/9371410835/deprecating-artist-...

For now I will stick with Soundcloud - the future going forward is to support artists who put their music out there without holding a gun to anyone's head.


how does this fit with the current change of ownership of emi? the company is in the process of being bought and, likely, split up. i guess this deal was done before all that - any idea how it will affect things? (my sympathies with the people behind this - must be frustrating to get a coup like this just as the company goes through such changes).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/28/emi-sold-russ...


These deals are most often non-transferrable in the case of acquisition.


The linked post refers to a "clear, pre-established revenue split with EMI" - but I can't find any details.

Is this information public?





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