.music

.music is a top-level domain name (TLD) dedicated for the use of music dissemination and appreciation. It is one of the most highly contested new gTLDs, with 8 competitive applications that were in contention.

.music
TLD typeNiche TLD
StatusICANN contracting with DotMusic Limited in progress

On April 17, 2020 DotMusic Limited announced that their global music community application for the .MUSIC registry prevailed. ICANN will award DotMusic the rights to the .MUSIC top-level domain name extension and move to contracting soon.

Applicants
  1. .MUSIC (DotMusic Limited) (Community Priority Application)
  2. Far Further (.music LLC) (Community Priority Application)
  3. Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. (Entertainment Names Inc.) - This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
  4. Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
  5. Radix (DotMusic Inc.), one of 31 applications filed by the company
  6. Famous Four Media, one of 57 applications filed by the company. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
  7. Donuts (Victor Cross) - This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
  8. Amazon[1]

.MUSIC / Dot Music Limited

This application for .music is a community priority application and was applied for by .MUSIC under the legal name of DotMusic Limited. CGR E-Commerce Ltd is part of the Roussos Group of Companies (RGC) and parent company of DotMusic Limited.[2] MUSIC is headed by Constantine Roussos. In 2005 he launched the .MUSIC (music.us) website to gather support via a petition to ICANN to approve the .music TLD for the global music community. Organizations it counts among its supporters include: International Federation of Arts Councils & Culture Agencies (IFACCA), American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), National Association of Recording Manufacturers (NARM).[3] The .MUSIC Initiative objectives include:[4][5]

  • Music Education
  • Fight Against Piracy to Protect Trademarks and Music Intellectual Capital
  • Promoting Arts and Global Music
  • Innovation in Music and Internet Space
  • Promote Competition

The team plans to operate the .music TLD using the multi-stakeholder approach and a portion of the revenue generated from the .music TLD registrations will be donated to selected non-profit music organizations. Registrations will be restricted to .MUSIC-accredited Community Member Organizations (MCMOs).[6] The company chose Afilias to provide back-end registry services.[7]

Far Further/.Music LLC

Far Further was founded by music professionals [8] with the objective to unite the global music industry and to provide a secure domain space for the industry, with a mission [9] to promote music, protect intellectual property rights and to help advance music education through the .music TLD. Their application for .music was a community priority application and was applied for under the legal name of .music LLC, which is a subsidiary of Far Further LLC.

The company chose Neustar to provide back-end registry services. The .music TLD was to be restricted and registrants to be qualified via association with a number of supporting organizations.[10][11]

TLDH and LHL Bid

On March 23, 2012, Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. and LHL TLD Investment Partners signed a partnership agreement to apply for the .music TLD. Minds + Machines was to provide the back-end registry solutions for the company.[12]

Amazon

Amazon's application was issued a GAC Early Warning from the representative of Australia and GAC Chair, Heather Dryden. The warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied as it stands. Applicants are encouraged to work with objecting GAC members.[13]

The warning states that the applicant is "seeking exclusive access to a common generic string .. that relates to a broad market sector," which Dryden notes could have unintended consequences and a negative impact on competition.[14]

Radix

Radix received a GAC Early Warning as an entire applicant, where each one of the applicants was flagged by the U.S. Government. This seems to be the only time a portfolio applicant had all of their applications warned. The issue does not deal with the technical capabilities or thematic content of their applications, but rather the inclusion of an email address associated with the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation. It seems that Radix included correspondence with this address as a recommendation with each of their applications.[15]

Objections

An official Legal Rights Objection was filed by DotMusic Limited against .music applicants since DotMusic Limited had registered trademarks for ".music" and "dotmusic" in nearly 30 countries.[16]

A Legal Rights Objection, as defined by the ICANN approved mediator, WIPO, is when, "third parties may file a formal objection to an application on several grounds, including, for trademark owners and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) [..] When such an objection is filed, an independent panel (comprised of one or three experts) will determine whether the applicant’s potential use of the applied-for gTLD would be likely to infringe [..] the objector’s existing trademark, or IGO name or acronym."[17]

Community objections

The American Association of Independent Music and DotMusic filed community objections against Google, dot Music Limited, Dotmusic Inc., Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd., and Donuts on the basis that they applied as open registries without enhanced safeguards or sufficient eligibility restrictions to protect music-related intellectual property and prevent music piracy. The American Association of Independent Music also filed a Community Objection against Amazon because of its application's exclusive-access registry policies and discriminatory registration eligibility criteria that restricted registrations solely for Amazon and its affiliates. The International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and DotMusic also filed a community objection against Far Further because of its application's exclusive-access registry policies and discriminatory registration eligibility criteria that restricted registrations solely for Far Further and its affiliates.[18] The objections against both Amazon's and Far Further's applications were based on their exclusive-access registration policies which ignored the ICANN Registry Agreement which required that new gTLD registries to be subject to the requirements of Specification 11 mandating that a TLD Registry must provide non-discriminatory access to registry services to all ICANN accredited registrars that enter into and are in compliance with the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD.[19] In February 2014 ICANN passed Resolutions for the new gTLD Program and followed Government Advisory Committee advice to mandate specific enhanced safeguards[20] and to prohibit applicants from operating a new gTLD as an exclusive-access registry for a TLD based on a generic term.[21]

References
  1. Music Status, ICANN.org
  2. "Office Roussos Hermes". Archived from the original on June 14, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  3. Application 1-1115-14110
  4. Constantine Roussos Linkedin Profile
  5. "music.us". Archived from the original on 2013-06-14. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  6. "About Us". Archived from the original on 2013-05-29. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  7. .MUSIC (DotMusic) Applies for Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) with ICANN
  8. "About US". Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  9. "Far Further Mission". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  10. RIAA backs .music new gTLD bid
  11. "About Far Further". Archived from the original on 2015-05-10. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  12. TLDH to apply for .music
  13. GAC Early Warning, NewgTLDS.ICANN.org Retrieved 25 Nov 2012
  14. "Music AU, GACweb.ICANN.org" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2018-11-27.
  15. RadixReg. GACweb.ICANN.org Archived 2013-01-21 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 27 Nov 2012
  16. LRO Cases, WIPO.int
  17. LRO, WIPO.int Retrieved 25 March 2013
  18. List of Pending Cases, ICCWBO.org Retrieved 14 May 2013
  19. New gTLD Agreement, Section 2.9, ICANN.org
  20. ICANN Resolutions, ICANN.org
  21. ICANN Resolutions, ICANN.org
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