EMI has bailed out of litigation against a social network and music recommendation service called Project Playlist after reaching a licensing deal with the company behind it.
EMI joined Warner and Universal in suing the online service last April. Project Playlist is a social network music recommendation thing that lets you find and tag music on the net, create playlists of music you find, play that playlist through your browser or mobile, and share your playlist with others via your blog or website or social network profiles. All of which is well and good, though a lot of the music the service links to is unlicensed, which is why the three majors got a little hot under the collar, and got their legal men on the case.
Sony, who were not part of that action, entered into a licensing deal with Project Playlist, and EMI have now followed suit, and left the litigation as a result. EMI Music Services man Ronn Werre told reporters: "Making our music available on a fan favorite like Project Playlist is part of EMI Music's mission to connect artists and fans and to give fans more ways to discover new artists. Project Playlist is becoming a fan favourite. Our artists also know that word-of-mouth among friends is a powerful part of music discovery".
Warner and Universal will proceed with their lawsuit, though, for the time being at least. As a result the service is still blocked by both MySpace and Facebook.