It's been announcement after announcement so far at the MIDEM 2007 conference over in Cannes.

Key players within the indie music sector have launched a new organisation to negotiate digital licensing deals on behalf of affiliated labels. They’re going to call it Merlin.

Merlin will act like a global independent trade body for indie labels to ensure that the independent sector is not abused by those seeking digital rights. In effect, they’ve just made someone with the same bargaining power as the major record companies. They went on to announce their first deal – with Snocap, the Shawn Fanning-run firm who will be providing MySpace’s much feted digital sales platform

While the entire of Scandanavia complains about Apple and their iPods For iTunes, iTunes For iPods and nothing else attitude, EMI Music Publishing has teamed up with the MCPS-PRS (the folks who collect monies and licensing fees for musicians) and GEMA (their German equivalent) to streamline European publishing rights for the entire EMI catalogue. Now digital distributors will be able to clear the publishing rights with a single deal, rather than get a separate one for each territory

EMI isn't the only Big Company making its new initiatives known. Warner Music have announced an advertising revenue agreement with www.dailymotion.com. Think French YouTube but with added filth. Promo videos from Warner acts will now be legally streamed via the site. Warner also made it known that they've bought Zebralution, a Germany-based digital music distribution firm. Although it's a key service provider to the indie sector, in light of the creation of Merlin, the depths of its absorbtion into the Warner giant will have to be seen.