Merlin announces declaration of independents

News out of the MIDEM 2007 music industry trade fair in Cannes, France: A clutch of independent record labels and trade groups from more than a dozen countries have signed with Merlin, a new nonprofit licensing agency that will negotiate deals on their behalf with music download sites and mobile content distributors. The Netherlands-based Merlin, which bills itself as a "one-stop licensing shop," will enable digital platforms to access its representatives' music catalogs in one deal, as opposed to myriad separate negotiations; labels may also continue selling independently via their existing distribution networks. Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills told The Wall Street Journal Merlin will effectively create a "virtual fifth major [label]" with its combined catalog: "Merlin will license collectively the individually unlicensable," he said.

For more on Merlin:
- read this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)

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