What is the single biggest issue facing the indies right now?

10 February 2012

by Lars Brandle

Rich Bengloff
President, A2IM
Creator human rights – artists and labels – is the big issue which cuts across everybody. Whether they’re artists or labels, creators need to be able to make a living through the intellectual property – the music – they create. We’re not luddites. We believe in cultivating our fans. We believe in giving them free music, we believe in the new economic models. But we want to be able to give away music when we want to give away music. We want to be able to sign-up for services that we think are appropriate, given that what the business model is. Our members stretch across the country; some have three employees, some have eighty. They’re in all different genres in music, all different sizes; so one size does not fit all. The independents are not a homogenous group of people. The US share (for indies) is shrinking, that’s the biggest concern. That’s why we came (to the MIDEM trade fair), for exports.

Alison Wenham
CEO, Association of Independent Music (AIM)
It’s the battle over copyright and piracy. And we have to re- frame the whole debate around the importance of music, and for artists to be able to earn a living and for the investors who believe in them. It’s as simple as that. At the most basic level it’s all about serving artists and making music. But so many of the big issues in our community – those issues of piracy and copyright – have been hijacked. We must have equitable and fair treatment for artists. We just need to get back to basics. The independents’ new 10-point manifesto addresses this. The document is not intended to be the end of the journey, but the beginning.

Helen Smith
Executive Chair, IMPALA
Universal and Sony’s plans to increase their market power through the acquisition of their second closest rival, EMI, would turn the music industry into a two-horse race. Who wants a landscape where two companies dominate access to radio, access to retail and get the best terms, leaving only crumbs for the rest? It’s not in the general interest to have two companies controlling such a massive portion of the world’s most important popular music. In Europe, there are new statistics which show the devastating extent to which Universal and Sony dominate. If their purchase of EMI is allowed to go ahead, they would control the Top 100, even the Top 1000, where you would expect to see more diversity. Yet fewer than 10% of the artists in the Top 1000 download and airplay charts are independent. This ties into the whole general debate about making sure that competition rules are fit for purpose, controlling excessive consolidation and abuse as well as fostering cooperation and collective negotiation by the independents.

Mark Chung
Chairman, German Association of Independent Music Companies (VUT)
We can’t look past the fact that we need a functioning digital market, in which creators of content are paid. It’s not a popular issue but it is the biggest issue. If we can resolve that, then everything else can be sorted out quite easily. The independent music community gathered in MIDEM to hammer-out a 10-point “manifesto.” The indies will convene again in New York this June, when it is hoped independent trade associations around the world will ratify the document.