WASHINGTON (AFP) — EMI Music and Project Playlist announced on Wednesday they have reached agreement to add the giant music company's recordings to the online catalog of the fast-growing music-sharing startup.
"Making our music available on a fan favorite like Project Playlist is part of EMI Music's mission to connect artists and fans and to give fans more ways to discover new artists, said Ronn Werre, president of EMI's Music Services.
The agreement apparently ends EMI's involvement in a multi-party lawsuit for copyright infringement filed against Project Playlist, which boasts more than 42 million registered users at playlist.com.
The Palo Alto, California-based Project Playlist is still facing a suit by the Recording Industry Association of America and two other major music labels, Universal and Warner.
In a statement, Project Playlist, which allows users to upload music and create and share playlists, and EMI said Playlist users "will be able to access EMI's digital audio and video content from both current chart-topping artists and legendary musicians."
"This partnership will provide us with a wide-ranging selection of content to satisfy our users? appetites to share and purchase music," said Owen Van Natta, the chief executive of Playlist and a former executive at Facebook.
"We are excited to now have both EMI and SONY BMG Music catalogs available and we hope to continue to expand and enhance our service," he said.
EMI record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Televisa Music, Manhattan, Mute, Parlophone and Virgin.
Social network Facebook severed its ties with Project Playlist in December, just days after rival MySpace cut its links over copyright violation fears.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
