Major record label teams up with Echo Nest to launch app 'sandbox'.
It's a pretty big deal for EMI, and an admission that a big part of the future of the music biz lies with apps – and also that the only way to stimulate this space is by giving developers free reign to be creative without worrying about rights.
Thus, US-based Echo Nest will host three of these 'sandboxes' to give app developers access to EMI's music, videos, and artwork.
The three are divided into sexy new content from stars like Gorillaz and Tinie Tempah, a 2,000 song archive of classics from including Culture Club, the Verve and others, and finally virtually the entire Blue Note Records jazz catalogue.
Notice the omission of some of the more copyright-sensitive artists like the Beatles, Coldplay and Radiohead.
Developers register for a API key and then wait for approval from EMI, which releases their apps to web, iPhone, iPad and Android.
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In effect, then, EMI will act as a publisher. And there'll be a 60/40 revenue share between EMI/ Echo Nest and the developer.
Echo Nest is managing the platform, and providing a variety of music-related software tools, including song identification, playlist creation and remixing.
Meanwhile EMI will clear the rights to the tracks that developers use, and will market the approved apps.
It'll be interesting to see how this stimulates creative ideas around individual artists. After all, most music apps to make headlines so far are generic products like Spotify or Deezer.
Perhaps this initiative will generate more of the kind of thing that Bjork just did with Biophilia.
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