Universal’s “Pay Up” Demands Prove To Be Successful

Universal Music Group, which sued video-sharing site Bolt.com for unauthorized use of its music, has successfully extorted Bolt settled the lawsuit out of court:

Under the terms of the agreement, Bolt has agreed to provide UMG with a multi-million dollar payment for damages for past infringement, against a percentage of the value of the company. In addition, Bolt has also agreed to introduce filtering technologies within the next 60 days ensuring that its users can no longer exploit the music and videos of UMG artists and songwriters without appropriate payment and consent.

“We are pleased to have resolved this litigation in an amicable manner and that Bolt has recognized our rights under the law,” stated Doug Morris, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group. “Moving forward, we and our artists will now be paid for the use of our music and videos on the site.”

You can almost hear Morris licking his lips as you read that statement, no?

The New York Post reports that Bolt will also pay out a per-play fee to Universal, and given Bolt’s relatively small userbase, we imagine that it’ll realize Universal a sum that can buy a few extra cups of coffee, much like the dollar-per-Zune-sold settlement UMG negotiated with Microsoft last fall. Whether this paves the way for similar settlements with the bigger players in the streaming-media sphere–particularly MySpace–remains to be seen; Bolt is a smaller player in the game, and according to the New York Times, it had to sell itself to a larger company in order to pay for the settlement. We seriously doubt that MySpace will be willing to give a huge chunk of its revenue over to Universal without a fight, or at least some extended legal negotiations.

Universal Music Group and Bolt Announce Settlement [PR Newswire]