ARTISTS' INTERESTS GROUPS WORKING AGAINST ARTISTS' INTERESTS?

Interesting news from the European Commission - no, really, come back... The EC is going to investigate the artist's royalities bodies in Europe (the people who collect the cash from music users and distribute it to musicians); it's noticed they operate as near-monopolies and is just a little curious if that's a good thing for the people whose money they handle.

The Commission said:

The commission considers that certain aspects of the agreements might infringe the EU Treaty's prohibition of restrictive business practices...

... and then it said some other stuff but we kind of got distracted by then; we were thinking about why you never see more than the crotch of the models wearing men's pants in catalogues. How are you meant to judge proportions without even so much as a knee to guide you? Anyway, the upshot is that another cosy part of the music industry is being called upon to account for itself - potentially, this could mean that more money will end up in musicians' pockets without music fans having to cough up any more. And that's good news not just for musicians, but also for low-level weed dealers across Europe's major cities.

music european commission