Universal Music Group Doug Morris has stepped up his ‘rant’ against YouTube and MySpace, accusing them of infringing the copyrights of its artists’ music videos.

Universal CEO Doug Morris described YouTube and MySpace as “copyright infringers” during a Merrill Lynch investors’ conference speech on Tuesday that was closed to the press.

Morris said YouTube and other sites “owe us tens of millions of dollars. How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly.”

“The poster child for (user-generated media) sites are MySpace and YouTube,” said Morris, according to a transcript obtained by Reuters. “We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars.”
He added, “How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly.”

A Call of legal action?

“His remarks strongly suggested the company was planning to take legal action in the near-term to either prevent the illegal use of their content on these Web sites or to ensure the company is compensated for the use of its content,” Jessica Reif Cohen, analyst at Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note on Wednesday. “This could be the first salvo from a content player against business models based on user-generated content, much of which relies on copyrighted material.”

Can’t build a successful business model giving away free products.

Record companies are keen to avoid repeating the mistake they believe they made when Viacom Inc.’s MTV was set up 25 years ago — allowing their artists’ music to be aired for free.

MTV built a billion dollar business airing artist videos and it won’t happen again.

Morris in his remarks to investors on Tuesday said MTV “built a multibillion-dollar company on our (music) … for virtually nothing. We learned a hard lesson.”

What about the American soldiers who are filming amateur videos in Iraq and posting on YouTube? This creates more competition for CNN and Fox.

I watched Tornadoes rip through farm houses on the Weather Channel and Discovery. Now I type in the search box “Tornado” and receive pages of tornado clips on YouTube. This creates more competition for major networks.

I can understand the label perspective of “copyright infringement”, but it’s not realistic especially in the internet age. Legal action is not a cure to the pain as much as building a brick wall won’t stop a 10 mile wide Tsunami. The YouTube idea was genius. Build a site that is ‘user friendly” with a simple search button and call it “Youtube”. No signups, no pop-up advertisements, and a simple search for your favorite video. Every business starts with an idea. One would have thought that labels would have come up with ideas and platforms to expose ‘artists’. The problem is that they are not and everyone else is. That is the reality.

(Yahoo News)

• The Militia Group have signed singer/songwriter Ronnie Day.
• Lady Gaga who just performed at the BMI showcase last night signs to Island/Def Jam.
• The Little Ones have signed a deal with Astralwerks. via (Coolfer)
• The Exploders are signed to Rubber / EMI for Australia but are available for the rest of the world. They are currently recording the second album in Dallas Texas with producer Stuart Sikes (Modest Mouse, Cat Power, The White Stripes) and will be performing Sept 18 @ Piano’s and Sept 19 @ the Knitting factory. For more information email paul.goodwin@optusnet.com.au.

B’Day
Beyonce
TW 541,198

Revelations
Audioslave
TW 141,817

Matter of Life and Death
Iron Maiden
TW 55,722

Extreme Behavior
Hinder
TW 53,722
Total 609,103
*The power of top 40 radio

Oh No
Ok Go
TW 13,697
Total 77,718
*jumped 66%. Read the recent article “WebBuzz/Record Sales”

• Apple’s iTunes to start selling movies
  Apple Computer Inc. said on Tuesday it will begin selling movie downloads from Walt Disney Co.’s film studios, aiming to turn its iTunes online music store into a one-stop shop for digital entertainment.
• Madonna will sing suspended from a cross in the finale of her Moscow concert on Tuesday despite a plea from the Russian Orthodox Church to drop that part of her act. Madonna has outraged Christian groups across Europe by staging a mock crucifixion and wearing a crown of thorns on her global “Confessions”
• BMI Presents New Music: Tuesday September 12th Arlene Grocery
• Alternative rockers God or Julie will be showcasing September 13th at Arlenes Grocery (NYC). Expect a big label turn out. Check out the video. For more information email michael@childlikemanagement.com or 917-709-7170. Check out Say Your Last Goodbye.

Nielsen Media Research Monday said it is in talks with Clear Channel’s electronic ratings committee about measuring radio listening which could pose a serious challenge to Arbitron.

The technology Nielsen could employ to measure radio would be its cell-phone-based “go meter� which the company has earmarked as a device for measuring out-of-home TV viewing.

Nielsen’s potential entry into radio could pose additional problems for Arbitron beyond challenging the radio ratings’ company’s core business. The two companies are currently partnering in Project Apollo, a national marketing service that combines Arbitron’s PPM with ACNielsen’s consumer scanner panels to provide advertisers with multimedia and product purchase data from a common sample of consumers. Project Apollo has six major advertisers participating in the pilot service.

(Media Week)