Sony Licensed Music Pulled from Samba DC Release

Interpret this as you will; either a setback for Samba fans and Sonic Team, or a possible sign that Sony is starting to worry about the Dreamcast. From the Magic Box:

The Dreamcast version Sega’s popular music game Samba De Amigo will not include the two Ricky Martin songs from the Naomi arcade version, namely Living La Vida Loca and The Cup of Life, because he is an artist under Sony Music Entertainment.

Reaction is mixed on DCTP. First, from ChumsGum:

I feared something like this would happen soon. If true, Sony is playing hardball now by not allowing Sony published music on other platforms like the DC. This could have serious ramifications. Think about a possible Crazy Taxi 2 for a moment, imagine Offspring’s “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” song in the sequel. Well, if Sony has their way, it won’t happen as Offspring, as well as numerous artist are signed with Sony Music. Can Sony really afford to lose millions on music publication licensing just to spite SEGA, Nintendo, and Microsoft?

And Core 238 gives this word of advice (that has drawn some criticism):

Despite the problem, there is another way around it. The artist could simply re-record the song. But they’ll have to do it under their own private label. This is exactly what Prince (I refuse to call him the artist formerly known as) is doing with all his music. As anyone who keeps up with music in general knows, the Purple One, has had a major dispute with his former label, Warner over the rights and the usage of his body of work. So he is currently (at least the last time that I checked) privately remixing and re-recording his entire 20+ album library of music. Not that he has any intention of reselling any of it, its just that he wishes to have some measure of control over the work that he has done. And after putting the last twenty or so years of his blood, sweat, heart, soul and tears into his work, I do not blame for one second in what he is doing.

In any case, if Ricky Martin of the Offspring really wanted to have full control over their work, that is all that they would have to do. True it would piss off Sony Music, but in my 15 year involvement with musicians and the music industry, I have yet to hear of a single record company, that had the best interest of the artist in mind when they created the contract in which the artist signed for the deal. And I assure you, that Sony Music and every other record company out there needs the musicians, far more than the musicians need them. Hence the recording industry’s carte blanche negative attitude to the MP3 format. For the first time, the business savvy musician can really begin to take control of his/her/their IP.