Getty takes steps towards becoming a music business, too

You'll be familiar with stock photo behemoth Getty Images, right?

[Insert picture of slightly unconvincing model looking convinced]

They're branching out. They've had a stock music business for a while, but now they're signing up ;name' artists (well, Joss Stone) to provide notes-for-notes. The Next Web explains:

Singing-songwriter Joss Stone was on hand to endorse the announcement. Her new independent label Stone’d Records has partnered with Getty to use the service as a revenue stream. Indeed, Getty is pitching this as a useful source of income for upcoming and established artists alike. The service is designed to simplify the process of gaining the rights to include music in a production, which can be difficult for content producers to navigate.

You could see this being quite attractive to larger media companies - background music which requires neither tortuous negotiations for overseas sales or online use, nor the shuffling down to the library of ominously-titled CDs for something royalty-free. May be a bit of a worry to both royalty collection agencies and library music companies.