Digital Home Thoughts: Music is for the Birds and Bees. Songwriters want Money.

"Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are lobbying Congress to legislate the payment of performance fees into downloaded music. If music publishers get their way, they'll be able to extract additional licensing fees from music downloads, movies, and TV shows containing their music, and even 30-second previews."

Times are tough. And when times are tough, people start looking for ways to make as much money as possible. Songwriters and publishers are targeting adding more fees to digital downloads. The sticking point is that they believe that downloads should be put under the umbrella of public performances, for which they would get an additional fee to the synchronization and mechanical licensing fees they already receive. The music industry already provides a minefield full of regulations and fees so it's no wonder that there is a conflict on what fees should be charged for what. Ars Technica is right, in that the world of music distribution and use has changed considerably and that laws need to be updated to reflect it. I also have the additional concern about the balance between those involved in music creation and the cost to consumers. Creators, be it songwriters, publishers, singers, etc, should get paid for their work, but at the same time, costs should not run up so high that consumers start looking for alternative ways to acquire their music.