The European Commission announced on May 27 that there was a monumental breakthrough in online music licensing.  Although it seems sometimes difficult to American consumers to accept the fact that their music does not travel as they do, and that the recordings they have and own are only technically legal to be distributed in the United States, the transborder nature of travel is even more prevalent in the EU.

Countries are smaller, closer together, and the populations of the countries regularly cross their borders, sometimes on a daily basis. (Not saying that those on the canadian border on the mexican border don't do the same, just with less proportional frequency.)  This has lead to problems with online distribution, as regularly the populations purchase from companies in different countries, and their languages are more diverse than the average nation.

In an effort to curb this seemingly difficult licensing schema, the EC has led an effort to standardize music distribution in the EU.  The French musical collecting society SACEM, which collects licensing fees on behalf of musical recording artists, expressed openness towards an EU-wide scheme, according to the EC. In addition, the multinational record company EMI has also stated it is ready to entrust rights managers to offer its repertoire for all 27 EU member states. In addition, the EU executive body said that Apple was more than willing to license rights on a multinational basis.

"The reason it is not available in every EU country is that many of the countries do not offer a large enough marketplace to justify the expense and effort required to sell in that country," Apple spokesman Tom Brooks said. "To sell music in any EU country, iTunes must first obtain rights in the sound recordings and the musical works on a country-by-country basis as well as comply with varying national and local consumer law requirements," he said.

Meanwhile, the EC said the announcement of a breakthrough on licensing rights for online music distribution does not affect the current antitrust restrictions it has taken against EU-based musical rights collection agencies such as SACEM, which the it said was restricting the rights of artists to license their material to a group in another EU member state.

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