MADISON, Wis., May 24 /PRNewswire/ — Musicnotes, Inc. announced today it has reached licensing agreements with several thousand music publishers and administrators, including BMG Music Publishing, peermusic, Famous Music and Bug Music who have agreed to license guitar and drum tablature for their song catalogs to be made available on http://www.mxtabs.net/.
Through these licensing agreements, guitar and drum tablature for songs written by artists and songwriters throughout these catalogs will be made freely available for download at the MXTabs.net website. This includes songs from such popular artists and bands as Coldplay, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, Wilco, Elvis Costello, Spoon, Modest Mouse, The Guess Who, Ryan Adams, Willie Dixon and thousands of others.
“When BMG Music Publishing partnered with Musicnotes six years ago, we were confident the Internet would be an incremental business for the music publishing industry. Since that time, the opportunities the Internet has provided for music publishers and songwriters have exploded,” said Nicholas Firth, Chairman and CEO, BMG Music Publishing Worldwide.
“Unfortunately, until now, the market for guitar and drum tablature has been piracy. The best way to fight piracy is to enable legitimate services such as MXTabs.net. We are pleased to once again be part of a pioneering venture with Musicnotes through MXTabs.net, the first legally licensed tab community website, in offering our song catalogs to music consumers,” Firth concluded.
“We applaud Musicnotes for providing this new service which is a win-win for fans, musicians and songwriters,” commented Ralph Peer, CEO of peermusic. “Fans and musicians can access the tablature to their favorite songs and artists free of charge, which allows them to grow their musical talents while at the same time recognizing the intrinsic value of the song and the songs’ creators through Musicnotes’ innovative business model.”
In response to its goal of ensuring songwriters and music creators are rewarded for their craft, MXTabs has also gained support among the songwriting community, including the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) and the Songwriters Guild of America (SGA).
“As President of the Songwriters Guild of America I am always interested in seeing new ways for songwriters to get paid for their hard work,” said Rick Carnes. “MXTabs.net is a bold attempt to monetize the nascent online guitar tabs market. We wish them, and the music, all the luck.”
“The Nashville Songwriters Association International applauds Musicnotes and MXTabs.net for their efforts to ensure songwriters and the creators of music are paid for the use of online guitar tabs,” said Bart Herbison, Executive Director of Nashville Songwriters Association International. “As consumers discover MXTabs.net I believe they will find that not only is it a viable alternative to illegally securing the product — it is also cool and the site they will want to utilize.”
Through agreements with music publishers, participating songwriters and copyright holders will share in advertising revenue generated through views of tablature on the web site MXTabs.net, while still retaining control over their song catalog in a robust online community.
MXTabs.net is expected to launch its new website in summer 2007. For more information on how to participate, publishers and administrators are encouraged to visit http://www.mxtabs.net/.
About MXTabs.net: MXTabs.net is the first legitimately licensed website designed to provide musicians with access to free guitar, bass and drum tablature, while also compensating music publishers and songwriters. Originally launched in 1999, MXTabs was one of the first, largest and most popular destinations for freely available online tabs. In 2006 the site voluntarily closed its doors due to issues of copyright, and the assets have since been acquired by Musicnotes, Inc.
