fair music weblog

This evening the first fair music awards have been given to Harald Quendler of Extraplatte, the VJane-network female:pressure, represented by Andrea Mayr, Mark Chung of Freibank music publishing and last but not least Peter Kuthan of the music project tonga.online within the context of the Ars Electronica in Linz, the international festival for art, science and technology. Around the award a discussion about the fair music initiative and the situation of the music business and cultural diversity took place.

fair music is the first global initiative for fairness and justice in the music business. fair music wants to establish fair rules and regulations in the music world: protection of artistic freedom, well-balanced contracts for musicians, fair remuneration for composers and musicians, as well as a fair distribution of opportunities for small producers worldwide and especially for musicians of the Global South. fair music adopts the idea and empirical knowledge of the Fair Trade Organisations and takes it to the world of cultural goods and services. It is committed to the development of standards of fairness for the music industry.

“What a quality label is has to be negotiated in a democratic way”, Peter Rantasa said. And he added: “We are happy that Fair Trade is consulting us in this.”

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For the first time, an attempt is being made in the field of culture to achieve a balance of interests between the right to intellectual property and the right to participate in world culture. The 2nd World Forum on Music of the International Music Council (IMC) in Beijing this Friday brings together representatives from the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), royalty collecting societies and artists, the International Musicians’ Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of the globally most prominent civil rights initiatives, as well as Creative Commons and the fair music initiative. The discussion-process on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) is anchored by the International Music Council, the top-level umbrella-organization of music-related NGOs associated with UNESCO. The debate seeks a balancing of interest within the framework the Musical Rights of the IMC. Moderator and chair of the IPR-Panel is Peter Rantasa, a member of the IMC’s board of directors and the initiator of fair music, the first global initiative for justice and fairness in the music business.

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According to BBC online news, NME reviews editor Julian Marshall thinks more bands are going to attempt new ideas in music distribution and music marketing like Radiohead: “I think it’s actually a really exciting time. People have been talking for years about how the internet was going to change the way people approach releasing their records,” Marshall says to BBC. Entertainment Retailers Association deputy chairman Ben Drury is quoted: “There are more ways to get music than ever before and really, it’s those labels that adapt to those conditions are the ones that will survive and prosper.”

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The International Music Council’s Second World Forum on Music starts in Beijing, China, on Thursday 10th October. Following the first World Forum on Music, held in Los Angeles in October 2005, the 2007 Forum aims at exploring some of the most important developments in music.

The main themes of the Forum are: Music in Development with a focus on the importance of strengthening the musical sector in developing countries; intellectual Property Rights and the implications of alternative regimes for ensuring artists’ rights; enhancing musical diversity; music in the Future - how social, cultural, political and technological trends influence music in the years to come.

Peter Rantasa, Executive Board Member of IMC, director of mica - music austria and initiator of fair music initiave will chair an important session on the complex topic of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in music on Friday. The speakers represent perspectives of authors, musicians, collecting societies, research, online-business and music industry and the UN organisation WIPO.

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After it emerged that the british rock band Radiohead is selling its latest album online and lets fans decide how much they want to pay, Guy Hands, whose private equity house Terra Firma purchased EMI two months ago, has urged the staff of the label, according to the Telegraph, in a confidential e-mail to embrace the digital age. “Mr Hands said the dramatic move by Radiohead was ‘a wake-up call which we should all welcome and respond to with creativity and energy’.”, writes the online Telegraph.
Hands is further quoted that the music industry “has for too long been dependent on how many CDs can be sold” and “rather than embracing digitalisation (…) the industry has stuck its head in the sand”.

The article: EMI warning on internet music - Telegraph.co.uk

Yesterday started Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas, the first file-sharing case to go to trial, in Duluth, Minnesota. After a calm morning session the afternoon brought a revelation during the questioning of Jennifer Pariser, Sony BMG’s head of litigation, according to Eric Bangeman’s report on Ars Technica: “(…) a Sony executive said what many observers have suspected for a long time. The RIAA’s four-year-old lawsuit campaign is costing the music industry millions of dollars and is a big money-loser for the record labels. “Saying that the record labels have spent ‘millions’ on the lawsuits, she then said that ‘we’ve lost money on this program.’”, says the report.