Norwegian Beatles Podcasts Yanked

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) has removed 212 Beatles podcasts, due to a rights agreement violation with music-label trade group IFPI. Each podcast, from the radio series “Our Daily Beatles”, aired in 2007, featured a different song from the Beatles repertoire, and the series would have effectively given the entire collection away for free.

The NRK had announced on Tuesday that they would make the entire series available for download by the end of the month, and 14 episodes even made it online. However, complications arose after it was revealed in NRK’s rights agreement that the IFPI only allows podcasts from shows broadcasted in the previous four weeks.

From the statement:

“The Beatles comes under our agreement with IFPI, which says that we only can put up shows for download that were aired the latest four weeks, and where the music is less than 70 percent of the show’s length. ‘Our Daily Beatles’ aired in 2007, so we have to pull the podcast. If it was aired today, we could have podcasted the next four weeks within the agreement. We could have done it, but choose not to.”

A songless version was aired in 2007, for the episodes presented the story behind each track. Currently, NRK is in talks with the trade group, but Beatles online is doubtful, given the lack of an Internet license for the band.

Once again, big business stands between the music and the listener. Surely an agreement can be reached, don’t you think?

Source: Reuters