Music industry calls on digital networks and operators to support the growth of legitimate digital music
9th May 2006
Music - both legal and illegal - is helping to drive the take up of digital services and hardware. With unauthorised music distribution still rife, digital networks and operators need to have a higher regard for copyright material, a new report published by British Music Rights says today. The music industry has therefore written to a number of digital companies and their trade associations asking them to do more to encourage legitimate music use and discourage unauthorised use.
The report, Respecting the Value of Digital Music, produced by Spectrum Strategy Consultants, predicts a positive outlook for the music industry with consumer use of legal digital music projected to grow five fold by 2009 compared to 2004.
The report also demonstrates that music contributes significantly to the take up and profitability of digital operators' products and services - as borne out by the emphasis on access to music in adverts for broadband, mobile handsets, and hardware. Despite this, most companies in these sectors appear indifferent as to whether consumers' access to music is legitimate or not.
In the long term, the report says, this could threaten the music industry's ability to grow to its full potential value.
Commenting on the published report, Emma Pike, Chief Executive of British Music Rights said: "Internet Service Providers, mobile companies and hardware providers, almost without exception, use access to music as a key selling point of their products or services - yet they do little to promote legal use of music over illegal use. It is time for digital platforms to demonstrate greater respect for the creative community without whom they would have no content to fuel demand for their services."
Award winning Fellow of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, David Arnold, said: "I would urge the music industry, businesses which rely on creative content, and opinion formers to work together to find ways to ensure that music and the creative industries in general are supported, valued and able to continue to contribute to a successful British economy. After all, a digital music player without music is just a box with a hard drive in it!"
The publication of British Music Rights' commissioned report has prompted the wider music industry body, the Music Business Forum (MBF), to write to a number of digital networks and operators, as well as their trade associations, enclosing the report and asking them to take more responsibility for discouraging the widespread dissemination of unauthorised music and helping to grow the legitimate market for music.
The letter from the Music Business Forum, which brings together composers, songwriters, music publishers, performers, musicians, independent and major record labels, music managers, music retailers and music educators (see notes to editors for full membership) urges digital companies to:
The MBF trusts that network operators and hardware manufacturers will help the music industry sustain the creative talent upon which they all rely to be successful in the digital age.
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Notes to Editors
1. Today's report, Respecting the Value of Digital Music, is available from British Music Rights. Highlights from the report include:
2. The letter written by Music Business Forum and sent on the 9th May 2006 to a number of companies identified in the report, including BT, NTL, 3, Tiscali, Wanadoo, as well as the trade associations ISPA and Intellect, is available from British Music Rights upon request.
3. British Music Rights provides a collective voice for composers, songwriters, music publishers and their collecting societies through informed consensus and is a leading industry voice in raising awareness of the value of music to the British economy, culture and society. It is co-chair of the MBF.
4. The Music Business Forum (MBF) is a loose coalition of music sector bodies with the following membership: AIM (Association of Independent Music); APRS (Association of Professional Recording Services); AURA (Association of United Recording Artists); British Academy of Composers & Songwriters; BARD (British Association of Record Dealers); British Music Rights; BPI (British Phonographic Industry); Creative and Cultural Skills (observer status); Equity; The MCPS-PRS Alliance; Music Education Council; (MIA) Music Industries Association; Music Managers Forum (MMF); Music Publishers Association (MPA); Musicians' Union; Music Producers' Guild (MPG); National Music Council; P@MRA; PPL (Phonographic Performance Ltd); Sound Connections; VPL (Video Performance Ltd); Welsh Music Foundation.
5. Press contacts:
British Music Rights - T: 020 7306 4446 E: britishmusic@bmr.org
David Arnold (Composer) and Andy Heath (Managing Director, 4AD Music Ltd) are available for comment by contacting British Music Rights.
Spectrum Strategy:
- Charlie Marshall, Manager, 020 7630 1400 cmarshall@spectrumstrategy.com
5. Supportive quotes from the music industry
Chris Green, Chief Executive of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters (BACS) said: "This new economy is hugely dependent on creators who deserve and need all the support they can get. Neglecting the creator leaves us in an unsuitable long term position. Given that copyright is the currency of this brave new digital world, companies should take it upon themselves to proactively undertake copyright awareness programmes. AOL Play Legal is a step in the right direction but much more work from other players in the digital value chain is urgently required".
Peter Jamieson, Chairman, British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said: "It may be tempting for Internet Service Providers to seek to wash their hands of the rampant piracy which takes place over their networks. But rather than turning a blind eye, ISPs should be facing up to their responsibilities and taking action against offenders. The abuse of the rights of UK performers and the people who invest in them cannot be regarded as 'acceptable use' by anyone."
John Kennedy, Chairman of International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) representing the recording industry worldwide, said: "If the digital music market is going to prosper in the years ahead, Internet Service Providers will have to take their share of responsibility for keeping the traffic on their networks legitimate. ISPs are doing very well out of digital music - it is helping drive their revenues and it is being liberally used in their marketing strategies. They should address the copyright infringement that is happening on their systems. No legitimate distributor in the physical world would stand back and allow its service to be used for piracy."
Dominic McGonigal, Director of Government Relations at PPL said "This report is one of the clearest demonstrations of the value of music in its pure digital form. Everyone is benefiting from this - consumers, businesses using music and the economy. But what the report highlights is how little goes back to all those who create our great music. I truly hope that we can all now move on and respect copyright in the new age so we do justice to the real value of our musical heritage and future".
Martin Mills, Chairman of Beggars Banquet said: "The inescapable conclusion from this illuminating report is that ISP's, and other participants in the digital supply chain, have built their businesses on the back of music - unpaid music. This situation is unsustainable, unjust, and irresponsible: as a matter of urgency, those parties should recognise their responsibilities, confront the issue of this unlicensed traffic, and share their profits with those that create them, the owners and makers of music copyrights".
Stephen Navin, Chief Executive of the Music Publisher Association (MPA) said: "Digital 'pipes' disseminate noughts and ones across Digital Britain and the world. Put your ear to the pipe and the preponderant sound is music. Show respect. In an age where companies should be putting corporate responsibly into practice, the digital community needs to grow up, be more accountable, and demonstrate its commitment to shared growth."
Eric Nicoli, Chairman, EMI Group said: "Copyright is vitally important in creating value for the whole digital music business, so we should all work to preserve that value. Network operators and hardware manufacturers have a responsibility to do their utmost to prevent IP theft. There are many practical and effective things they could do to help, including agreeing to disconnect offending subscribers and ceasing the widespread practice of using the facility to steal music to promote their own products and services."
John Smith, General Secretary, Musicians' Union (MU) said: "The Musicians' Union welcomes and fully endorses the conclusions of this report. The importance of the digital music market to music writers and performers is clear. Music must be recognised as a vital facet of the new digital business models and it is the duty of the service providers to ensure that musicians are adequately protected and appropriately rewarded"
Jazz Summers, Chairman of the Music Managers Forum (MMF) said: "Without all interested parties finding a sustainable way to co-exist, music will be further devalued creating a downward spiral, both economically and creatively. The MMF supports the report and indeed urges all to "respect the value of digital music" with the creators & performers firmly at the heart."
Alison Wenham, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Association of Independent Music (AIM) said: "The Spectrum report underlines the crucial role music is playing in driving growth in the entire new media market in the UK. As a result of the clear role identified by the Spectrum report that music is playing in driving the new economy, we call on other industries in the digital supply chain to take a more proactive role in ensuring that the music industry is not marginalised as a result of wide-spread unauthorised usage."
Other creative industries are aware of the implications of the report:
Lavinia Carey, Director General of the British Video Association (BVA) said: "In our increasingly knowledge-based economy, music is at the forefront of Britain's creative industries offering the public ever greater choice and ease of access, but also facing huge losses to copyright theft on digital platforms, as a generation of people become accustomed to getting music for free. Content providers and digital hardware industries are becoming interdependent so the benefit of working together to reduce the damage being done now and in the future is a no-brainer. Greater cooperation from digital platforms should be an irresistible proposition".