January 22 -- RIAA files a lawsuit against MP3.com with
the claim that their new Beam-It software allows for "copyright
violation."
January 23 -- MP3.com said it's "disappointed"
in a copyright suit the RIAA filed against it and vowed to fight.
The company defended its new My.MP3.com service that prompted
the suit by saying it will stimulate sales of CDs and other recordings
instead of hurting them
January 30 -- Music website MP3.com.au has signed a deal
with Yahoo! Australia and New Zealand to supply Yahoo with official
Australian digital music charts.
January 30 -- Facing a lawsuit over its new online CD listening
service, MP3.com told its users Thursday they can help -- by
signing up more of their friends. "To preserve your rights,
we need your help," reads their notice to members. "With
each music fan that adds their CDs to My.MP3.com, our position
against the record companies grows stronger. "If each of
you 'Tell 10' friends about My.MP3.com, we'll have an army of
music fans to fight the good fight."
February 8 -- MP3.com files a law suit against the RIAA
and its president and chief executive, Hilary Rosen, accusing
the association of engaging in unfair business practices.
February 10 -- CNET News.com -- High school senior Alex
Smith's one-man band, The Cynic Project, took the top spot on
MP3.com's Payback for Playback chart in January, garnering the
Stillwater, Minn., resident $4,789. And that was just last month.
He also racked up money in December and November, the first month
of the program. Combined with his CD sales through the site,
the 17-year-old has earned more than $12,500.
February 17 -- MP3.com is pulling out of its planned acquisition
of Web event planner SeeUthere.com, citing the unavailability
of pooling of interest accounting for the merger. Instead, MP3.com
will take a "major stake" in the company for an undisclosed
price. SeeUthere is expecting to raise up to $30 million from
current and new investors in the coming months.
February 22 -- MP3.com Inc. has teamed up with the Live
Music Channel (LMC) to broadcast video recordings of live concerts.
May 1 -- "A monumental licensing deal,"
is what MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson is saying about resolving
the lawsuit currently held against his company. Robertson is
cautiously optimistic about reaching a settlement.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff
ruled that MP3.com is liable for infringing the copyrights of
the RIAA. Also on Friday, Michael Carlinsky representing MP3,
said the company was considering an appeal. But perhaps an appeal
will not be needed if the two sides can agree on a settlement.
Judge Rakoff has set an August 28th 2000 trial date in order
resolve any remaining conflicts between MP3.com and the RIAA.
May 9 -- Paul McCartney has filed a lawsuit against
MP3.com, the online service that distributes free music by mostly
unknown artists. Paul says that MP3.com is stealing from him.
It has not paid him or his record label for the right to use
his music. MP3.com hosts a listening service if you have
bought a CD, such as Paul's Run Devil Run, and you can
prove it, MP3.com will allow you to stream the music over the
Internet. Paul McCartney and his lawyer say this is copyright
infringement.
May 15 -- Alanis Morissette announces plans to sell
$1 million worth of MP3.com stock. She first acquired 329,328
shares of the stock last April and is now looking to lessen her
load by 100,000 shares.
May 30 -- MP3.com formed a retail music licensing division
that will supply subscribers to the new service with access to
songs via the Internet. Businesses can even mix in their own
advertisements along with the music..
The site now offers 424,000
songs from 67,000 artists.
June 9 -- A full day before the settlement was announced
with my.MP3.com, BMG announces that they've been backing another
company named MusicBank, that copies the my.mp3.com model almost
exactly. They've been working together for the past 6 months.
June 23 -- mp3.com joins forces with the RIAA and the
MPAA in asking U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel for a preliminary
injunction to stop Napster's file sharing services.
MP3.com's recent settlements
with Warner Music Group and BMG Entertainment are steps in showing
the music world that MP3 technology is a tool that can greatly
help artist promotion. Now that MP3.com is "legalizing"
itself and playing by the rules, it looks like they are making
sure that everyone else has to do the same. "In the operation
of our Website, we do not authorize unlawful or pirated MP3 files,"
states Robertson.
July 1, 2000 -- Although exact financial terms of the settlement
were not disclosed, sources say that BMG is to get between $15
million and $25 million. Under the terms of the deal, MP3.com
will pay an undisclosed fee each time the label's CD is registered
by a user and another fee each time a user accesses one of its
songs.
July 27 -- Details are being reported that MP3.com and
EMI are about to announce a new partnership. The new deal will
have EMI's recordings featured on the ever infamous my.mp3.com
service.
MP3.com has given a reported
estimated $20 million dollars to EMI in damages, as a settlement
from the recent litigation brought about the company from EMI
and several other members of the RIAA. The deal is the third such agreement with a RIAA
member, leaving only Sony Music Group and Seagram's Universal
Music Group as the two major labels whom have yet to reach an
agreement with Mp3.com for the use of their music on it's service.
August 28 -- Having settled with EMI, Warner Music, BMG,
and Sony, MP3.com and the Universal Music Group head to court.
September 6 -- Mp3.com was found to have willfully infringed
on the Universal Music Group's copyrights.
October 5 -- MP3.com has announced that despite recent
legal issues at amazingly large financial costs, they will extend
their payback for playback offer for artists who profile their
music through MP3.com through October. The company has been paying the digital music
community an estimated million dollars a month since May through
the service, and have given out over $7 million dollars to the
artists which make up their collection of online music since
the inception of the program in November 1999.
November 14 -- While the complete details are not clear
yet, it is being reported that MP3.com has settled its copyright
lawsuit with Universal Music by paying $53.4 million in damages.
November 15 -- In a unique move on the part of a major label,
Universal Music Group (UMG) announced that it will be sharing
$25 million of the recently awarded $53.4 million dollars in
damages from MP3.com with artists who had their works infringed
upon.
December 4 -- MP3.com has announced that it has reached
the 750,000 mark for songs that are available on the ever growing
digital music portal. Not only is the total number of songs available
at record breaking levels, MP3.com also reports that the collection
of music on the site is growing on a average of around 1,300
songs per day. MP3.com, with a reported 1/4 of a million songs
available less then a year ago, has tripled the amount of digital
music available on the site in less then a year.
December 19 -- EMusic.com
sues mp3.com for using content from the 13,000 albums that they
have made deals with around 600 various record labels to use.
The suit also brings in six independent record labels on the
side of EMusic, claiming that MP3.com violated copyrights by
offering them online without permission.
