Google signed a major licensing deal with Armonia on the 1st of November and the news is just now being made public. The deal brings music to 31 countries and includes music from Sony’s Latin division and Universal Music Publishing’s British and American repertoire.
Sami Valkonen, head of music licensing, adds: «We’re thrilled to have reached an agreement with the Armonia societies. Licenses such as this are important in ensuring that artists and rights-holders are rewarded fairly for their creative endeavours, and digital service providers are able to bring innovative services to market for the benefit of European consumers. Armonia is a welcome development in the on-going reform of pan-territorial licensing in Europe in helping simplify and speed-up the music-licensing process, which is crucial in fostering ongoing rapid innovation by digital music service providers””
This is pretty great news. Near as I can tell, Armonia is going to help streamline the licensing issues that arise between artists and other music outlets. Giving companies like Google, instant access to licensed music for distribution via the Google Play Store and right to your device. how could adding 5.5 million more tracks to the Play Store for European’s be a bad thing? Way to get the ball rolling Google. Hopefully with Armonia and their licensing in 31 various countries, it will help Google get Google music rolled out in more locations soon.
