The jury is about to award the best achievement for exemplary conduct in the music business.

The fair music Award 2008 and the fair music certificates will be handed out in a festive manner on the 2^nd of September 2008 in Eisenstadt/Austria.

These standards that products and distribution channels will have to meet in order to receive a fair music seal of approval, will be developed by the fair music initiative together with the International Music Council (IMC - an international NGO in formal associate relations with UNESCO) and music and cultural NGOs.

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Purpose and Overview:

About the 2008 fair music Award: Recognition for best practice and special achievements about fairness in the music business (fair music prize trophy and certificates, the right to use the fair music seal, exposure to international press, promotion of the repertoires via the fair music website and public relation).

Who can be nominated? Labels, publishers, initiatives and services providing the audience access to music.

Process of nomination: fans, listeners, musicians and composers enter nominees representing a good example of fair business practices in serving cultural diversity. (more…)

Since Harald Quendler received the 2007 fair music Award more than 30 releases were awarded with the fair music seal of approval. Among this releases Franz Haunzinger, Otto Lechner and Anne Bennet are amazingly interesting.

Harald Quendler has shown more than 30 years of commitment for cultural diversity in the Austrian music market. With his business Extraplatte – label, distributor and record store rolled into one – Quendler co-operates with musicians to make them stand on their own two feet – from music production to cover and booklet arts design to marketing and distribution. Extraplatte is an established niche service for innovative, off-key and exotic music. It is a synonym for a diverse choice of folk, jazz, world music, classical, advanced pop and contemporary music. Successful careers and trends which were knocked off by Extraplatte produce a long, long list. Promoting unknown musicians still is instrumental to Quendler. fair music rewards the commitment to cultural diversity and freedom.

Further information: www.extraplatte.com

Im Rahmen der MIDEM, der weltgrößten Musikmesse in Cannes, laden dazu Peter Rantasa, Geschäftsführer von mica - music austria, Vizepräsident des IMC (International Music Council), der 1949 von der UNESCO gegründeten Musikdachorganisation, und Initiator von fair music sowie Franz Patay, Generalsekretär des IMZ (International Music + Media Centre) und Geschäftsführer des Haydn-Jahres 2009 ein.

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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.”

Watch the video

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Basical musical rights:
• The right for all children and adults to express themselves musically in all freedom;
• The right for all children and adults to learn musical languages and skills;
• The right for all children and adults to have access to musical involvement through participation, listening, creation, and information;
• The right for musical artists to develop their artistry and communicate through all media, with proper facilities at their disposal;
• The right for musical artists to obtain just recognition and remuneration for their services.(excerpt from the statutes of the IMC—International Music Council, an advisory body of UNESCO)

We have never before had it this good! As music fans, we all remember the days when the longing for new records had us rummaging through dusty boxes and enthusiastically schleppingheavy loads of plastic back with us from far-flung cities so that we could finally hear the musicthat had been touted by our magazines of choice. Cellphones, notebooks, Web platforms –today, every new electronic communication channel is chock full of music. On the streets you hardly see an ear anymore that is not literally wired for sound. But do we really know where themusic we are enjoying in such abundance comes from? Besides the artists that are so close to our hearts, there are also numerous other people and companies involved in making sure we can finally hear what we want to hear. But we don’t even know about them!

As a music fan, I have a right to hear exactly the music I want to hear. As a creative artist, I have a right to expect recognition and payment for my performances and my ideas. As a listener, I assume that the money I pay for my music goes to the artists of my choice. But can I really be sure that the artists receive their fair share of what I spend and that – as a fundamental principle –they can produce their music freely and under fair conditions? (more…)

Representatives from the EU’s Culture Ministries met in Cannes on 27 January to discuss the challenges facing the music industry at an informal meeting held to coincide with the start of this year’s MIDEM international trade fair for the music and recording industry. At the event, European Commissioner Ján Figel’ announced the launch of a study on the role of culture, and the EU’s cultural industries, in promoting and stimulatingcreativity, innovation and growth in the EU. (more…)

Magnatune was founded in April 2003 by John Buckman and is located in Berkeley, California. Magnatune was born out of Buckman’s observations he’d gathered about the music industry, along with personal experiences from his wife releasing her CD on an Indie record label. In the end, she sold 1000 CDs, lost all rights to her music for 7 years (even though the CD had been out of print for many years), and earned a total of $137 in royalties paid (some of it paid to her as CD copies of her own CD which she then gave away for promotion).

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