January 17, 2009

By By Andre Paine, Cannes

Another digital pan-European licensing deal has been announced at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, following the partnership between PRS for Music and Qtrax.

Dutch collecting society Buma/Stemra has joined Warner/Chappell's pan-European digital licensing initiative (PEDL). Under the arrangement, it will have non-exclusive rights to the publishers' Anglo-American repertoire.

Under the Warner/Chappell initiative, digital services can choose to license the repertoire from one of several collection societies. MCPS, GEMA, STIM, SACEM and SGAE are also part of the scheme.

Jane Dyball, SVP international legal and business affairs, Warner/Chappell Music, said in a statement: "An additional benefit of PEDL is that it gives us complete transparency into the licenses which societies have entered into before joining the initiative, and where necessary the ability to require adjustments to those agreements, something we typically have not been able to do before."

Cees Vervoord, CEO of Buma/Stemra, added: "This deal extends our partnership with Warner/Chappell and strengthens Buma/Stemra's position with respect to the roll out and implementation of competitive new licensing models in line with the needs of today's market."

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