April 20, 2007

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

The drama around the AnywhereCD online music service continues. Founder Michael Robertson has filed a complaint against Warner Music Group, asking for a declaratory judgment that AnywhereCD did not breach its agreement with WMG and that it indeed has the right to sell albums of WMG artists in MP3 format.

AnywhereCD?s problems with WMG began the very day the site went live April 12. The company had a licensing agreement with WMG, allowing it to sell physical CDs from the online store. As an added service, AnywhereCD would rip the CD into MP3 files and deliver both the CD and the files to customers.

WMG objected, however, to Anywhere CD giving customers the option to only download the MP3 files sans physical CD for a lower price. WMG immediately issued a notice of termination to the service, saying that it ?flagrantly violates the terms of our agreement.?

Anywhere CD has since removed the MP3-only option from the service and continues to sell WMG music in a bundled CD/MP3 package.

?AnywhereCD has the utmost respect for [the] Warner Music Group family of artists and we want to distribute their albums through our service,? says Robertson in a statement. ?Unfortunately, we ran into a contractual disagreement that necessitates the help of the courts and ultimately the oversight of a judge. We hope to settle this matter quickly, and move forward with our stated business of selling ? MP3 albums.?

The complaint also seeks damages for business defamation, trade libel and breach of contract. The copy of the complaint is available here.

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