The free-for-all party is over. Now you've got to pay to get in.

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MP3.com are trying to put a positive spin on it. But the result is clear, some musicians aren't happy about being charged $20 a month if they want to be eligible for Payback for Playback earnings. There's at least one petition doing the rounds on MP3.com discussion forums at the moment.

The Premium Artist Service comes into its own on April 1. Ostensibly a marketing service, the PAS offers priority placement, chart prominence, priority approval of new songs, unlimited use of the MP3.com Uploader Tool and eligibility to earn Payback For Playback. It will cost $20 to use per artist associated with each user name/password.

MP3.com's Payback for Playback program rewards artists for high numbers of listens. MP3.com makes $1 million dollars a month available to musicians who offer their music for free on its web site.

Or it did.

Maybe it's better to say MP3.com makes $1 million dollars a month available to musicians who pay at least $20 a month to offer their music for free on its web site.

To be fair, MP3.com still allows artists to put their music on the site and to have it streamed around the world for free. MP3.com has given away $13 million in Payback for Playback cash. It didn't have to. The party was great while it lasted.

But for many artists who saw Payback For Playback as an incentive to market their own music and, in doing so, MP3.com, it is a kick in the teeth on an emotional level. Like it or not, if you want to earn money, you're going to have to pay up for the priviledge.

Let's be real about this. MP3.com want to raise revenues and reduce administration costs. IUMA and Riffage offered similar services for free and suffered the consequences. Riffage is no more, while IUMA stopped taking on new artists and closed down its revenue sharing program with artists. Clearly, it costs a lot of money to provide free services such as MP3 hosting, streaming, and administering Payback statistics.

It's still too early to do more than guess but artists who use PAS may actually increase their Payback for Playback amounts as there will be fewer artists to share the $1 million with. Those who take themselves seriously, have talent and work hard at a career in music are going to sign up for this reason as well as the other services that PAS offers.

You can bet on it, people. $19.95(US) isn't much to pay*. Well, that's what MP3.com is gambling on anyway!

* Unless you live in the third-world, eastern Europe, Russia, Africa and certain parts of Asia.

 

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