Society

Online music providers to collect download fees

Six major music providers have agreed to a plan to charge users a fee to download copyrighted music, it was announced at a recent seminar on digital music held in HCM City.
Six major music providers have agreed to a plan to charge users a fee todownload copyrighted music, it was announced at a recent seminar ondigital music held in HCM City.

Effective onNovember 1, users may listen to music online for free but must pay 1,000VND (0.05 US cent) for each song they download.

About aquarter of the nation's population uses internet. Over three quarters ofthose use online music services, but 85 percent of them don't pay forthe copyrighted content, said Phung Tien Cong, deputy director of MVCorp, a multi-sectoral technology group. Collecting royalties fordownloaded songs would fight copyright infringement and help the onlinemusic market develop, he said.

The seminar was organisedby MV Corp, the Vietnam Centre for Protection of Music Copyright and theRecording Industry Association of Vietnam.-VNA
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