Harley Brown wrote an article for Billboard.com about the upcoming battle for .music. The indies vs Google and Amazon. The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) has announced its support for the music industry to control .music.
A2IM believes that if Google or Amazon win the .music extension that they will obviously put profits ahead of industry and artist concerns. In a conversation with Billboard, A2IM President, Rich Bengloff expressed hope that ICANN would select a music community supported entity over a strictly for profit concern. This certainly did not work out that way for Dot Green. Annalisa Roger who worked hard to bring about her vision of a Dot Green extension, had to throw in the towel last October.
While DotGreen supported the New gTLD program, we believe we exhausted all options within the framework of the New gTLD applicant guidebook and the multi-stakeholder model for procuring .green management. DotGreen remains locked in contention facing an auction among three registry competitors from the Internet industry. Unfortunately it is impossible for DotGreen to proceed within these circumstances.
Today we withdrew DotGreen Community, Inc.’s application for the .green TLD.
Bengloff acknowledges that if A2IM has to go to an auction with Google and Amazon his chances are slim.
From the article:
A2IM president Rich Bengloff puts it a little more bluntly, citing Google and Amazon’s investor-driven interests as a concern if either one were to acquire .music. “We’re afraid their total goal will be maximizing revenues, so they may not have the safeguards in place to ensure the necessary support for the industry, individual labels, and artists who should have it,” he tells Billboard. “We want to make sure only legitimate owners get first shot of these domains.”
For example, he continues, a music industry-controlled .music would give Concord Music Group first shot at the domain name Concord.music and its artist, Paul McCartney, first dibs on paulmccartney.music. Bengloff hopes that during the application review process, ICANN selects a music community-supported organization to manage the domain name. As of last year, however, ICANN published “Last Resort” auction rules, essentially a winner-take-all model that gives domains to the highest bidder.
It works like this: Besides .music, the .app, .home, and .inc domains (among others) have seven or more parties, including Amazon and Google, bidding for them. Community-based applications technically have priority over the registries if they make it through the strict criteria of ICANN’s Community Priority process. If not, then the domains go to a wider auction in which community-based organizations go up against corporate behemoths. If it comes to that, Bengloff admits, it will be difficult to compete with Google and Amazon.
Read the full article here
Here are the applicants for .Music according to Wikipedia
- .MUSIC (DotMusic Limited) (Community Priority Application)
- Far Further (.music LLC) (Community Priority Application)
- Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. (Entertainment Names Inc.) – This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
- Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
- Radix (DotMusic Inc.), one of 31 applications filed by the company
- Famous Four Media (dot Music Limited), one of 57 applications filed by the company. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
- Donuts (Victor Cross) – This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
- Amazon[1]
Good luck to the underdogs!
Musicians have taken a financial beating from the internet over the years. Ultimately, less money going to musicians means less quality music being made. So it would be nice to see .MUSIC operated in the interests of those making music.
If a Goliath does win the .MUSIC application, I hope it’s Amazon. Amazon.com at least sells music recordings, which leads to musicians getting paid something.
Google, on the other hand, operates Youtube, which indirectly steals copyrighted material from musicians (or the labels that pay musicians). The money Google collects as a result of music it doesn’t own won’t be paying the musicians who made it. Google is one of the worst companies I can imagine operating .MUSIC. That outcome must be stopped if at all possible.
Joseph you hit the nail on the head.
Not only do I agree from the standpoint of an Online Marketing Specialist, but as well as an international recording artist I find the thought of Google controlling .MUSIC absolutely frightening. If this happens, musicians like myself will continue to be buried. How am I suppose to keep providing my fans music when we can’t make a dime to produce the music for them. How are our fans suppose to purchase our album once the record company can’t afford to produce them.
Youtube is a fine marketing tool when posting music videos. However with the ability to put whatever the heck you want up on Youtube, regardless of the artist being trademarked through the Music Union completely strengthens my concern. Especially since the .Youtube GTLD will enable users to have their account name as a domain name. It only expands the piracy issue.
This has to stop or the world will lose all credible music and we’ll all be stuck with the likes of Justin B., Brittany Spears etc being shoved down our throats for generations to come. The day of having real musicians on the store shelves will be done.
This is very very scary to me. I jumped at the thought of the music industry being able to actually control the .MUSIC GTLD.