Songl Respond To Indie Sector Attack

Backed by two of the three major labels, music streaming service Songl came under attack yesterday from leading independent music rights agency Merlin, who accused it of not interacting with independent artists and labels.

The service launched in Sydney yesterday with a focus on educating the wider public about streaming services through the channels of Southern Cross Austereo, who is the third partner in the venture. Claiming a seven-million strong database of songs, Merlin CEO Charles Caldas told Billboard that without artists like Adele and Nick Cave, whose rights are managed independently, the service was “inferior” to its competitors.

“Merlin tried to have a discussion with the major label proprietors of Songl to license our music, but they simply haven't bothered to do so,” he said. “As a result Australian consumers are seeing the launch today of an inherently inferior product to the subscription services in the market that have worked with us to make sure their subscribers have a properly comprehensive music offering; including Rdio, Spotify, JB Now and Deezer.”

Today Songl's Mark Shaw responded to theMusic.com.au saying, “We're excited to have launched Songl with all the major labels and a number of independents, and we're looking forward to developing even more relationships as time goes on. We have a number of label content deals and initiatives that we will reveal over the coming weeks as the service gets up and running. We look forward to announcing these soon.”

Caldas had also added, “Why anyone would pay good money to subscribe to a service that doesn't include some of the leading artists in the world, including Adele, Nick Cave, The Lumineers, the XX, Grizzly Bear and hundreds of thousands of other tracks by independent artists, which are available on the existing digital services, is beyond me… Spending anything on this service is a simple waste of money.”