Hip Hop Congress

MySpace Bans Project Playlist, Facebook Defies Same RIAA Request

By Scott Gilbertson December 22, 2008 | 10:34:29 AM from wired.com

In the world of online music, 2008 has been the year of the playlist sharing sites, but sadly it’s also been the year of the playlist sites being shut down. The latest victim is Project Playlist, which was recently banned from MySpace.

Project Playlist is an online mixtape sharing site similar to the recently shut down Mixwit and the long-gone Muxtape, but slightly different in that much of the focus is on sharing playlists through social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

Over the weekend, in response to pressure from the RIAA and major labels, MySpace shut down Project Playlist’s widgets and banned the service from the site.

The Project Playlist website (a social network in its own right) is still alive and kicking, but since many of the site’s users rely on the embeddable player to share playlists on other social networks, the MySpace ban will no doubt prove painful.

Starting on Friday evening, MySpace began shutting down Project Playlist’s widgets, telling affected users that “your Project Playlist widget has been removed from your profile in response to copyright complaints.”

For its part Facebook has so far refused to comply with the infringement notifications that led MySpace to ban Project Playlist. While that will likely earn the site some points with fans, it probably won’t last long. However, in an interesting twist, Project Playlist recently hired former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta as its CEO. Whether or not that cozy relationship affected Facebook’s decision is unknown and neither party was willing to comment, citing pending litigation.

Project Playlist is being sued by Warner Music, EMI, and Universal Music Group, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), but at least one label — Sony BMG — has struck a deal with the site.

Although the terms have not been disclosed, the deal is good news for the some 40 million Project Playlist users who now legally use songs from artists and bands on the Sony label in their playlists.