Music Ally

9am? For a music industry conference? There are some bleary eyes around this room, and no mistake. But Music Ally is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a day of live coverage. Kicking off with the double-pronged keynote interview with UK Music’s Feargal Sharkey and music manager Brian Message.

Interviewer Jemima Kiss kicks off with a future scenario – it’s 2015, the major labels are distinctly less major, and bands are going direct to fans, with most revenues coming from ticket sales and streaming live gigs. Facebook has bought Spotify, and Simon Cowell has been assassinated. Is that the future?

Feargal kicks off. No. “Everybody’s been trying to cast this in black and white,” he says, pointing out that while the direct-to-fan stuff offers “an extraordinary opportunity” for artists, there’s another side. “Artists need investment – it doesn’t matter if that comes from a manager or a multi-national record company or somebody else… The whole idea that all artists can go out there, give their work away for free and make money from selling badges and t-shirts and gigs is… quite badly informed.”

(more…)

Following the recent bout of internecine warfare in the UK industry over the government’s plans to toughen up its anti-piracy legislation, UK Music has stepped in to calm the waters.

A statement from the body has welcomed government intervention, while CEO Feargal Sharkey attended two meetings for managers and artists earlier this week held at Sony and EMI. Sharkey says the infighting is not a problem for the industry.

“Like all of society, like all creative businesses, the UK’s commercial music industry reflects a wide spectrum of viewpoints and opinions. Discussions over recent weeks have drawn us much closer together and helped us to realise with greater certainty our shared vision of the future.”

Someone tell Lily Allen…

UK music industry body UK Music was notably less combative than the BPI in its response to today’s Digital Britain report, even if it shared Geoff Taylor’s concern that the initial warning-letters system won’t be effective in fighting piracy.

In fact, UK Music’s statement also thinks the planned technical measures to slow down or cap persistent file-sharers’ internet connections won’t be enough to reduce illegal file-sharing by 70-80% within 2-3 years, as the government hopes.

“We would like to see action now,” says UK Music’s Feargal Sharkey. “Over the past 12 months, UK music companies have exceeded themselves in terms of innovation and experimentation, offering unprecedented access and choice to music fans. Yesterday’s announcement by Virgin Media and Universal Music of their all-you-can-eat MP3 service comes on the back of free-to-consumer offerings from Spotify and We7 and the removal of Digital Rights Management from the download market. There are more licensed download services in the UK than any country in Europe. I am certain there will be even more in the coming weeks, months and years.”

(more…)

PRS for Music is stepping up its pressure on Google over YouTube licensing payments at an event in London, where the cream of UK songwriting talent has gathered to support PRS’ Fair Play For Creators campaign.

Music Ally is here, laptop in hand (well, on lap) to liveblog the event. We’ve had a photocall with the assembled songwriters and composers, and shortly PRS chairman Ellis Rich will take the stage, along with pop mogul Pete Waterman, to give an update on the campaign – which was sparked by Google’s decision to pull all premium music videos from YouTube UK due to fraught licensing negotiations with PRS.

Read on for full details as it happens. We’ll be updating the post as we go along, so keep refreshing for the latest news and views from the event.

(more…)

UK music industry body UK Music has come out fighting on the side of PRS for Music in its row with Google over YouTube licensing rates. Not a surprise, really, given that PRS for Music is one of UK Music’s key members.

But anyway, a statement slams Google, saying that it “qualifies as neither embryonic nor a start-up. In 2008 alone, the internet search giant recorded profits of over £3bn. By comparison, PRS for Music is a not-for-profit organisation, run by its members for its members. In this light, it is difficult but to interpret Google’s actions this week as anything other than cynical and exploitative.”

At the time of writing, there’s no resolution to the row, which has been rumbling since last week. You can read UK Music’s full sternly-worded statement here.

Yesterday’s publication of the interim Digital Britain report in the UK wasn’t quite a damp squib, but most of the key elements had already leaked out, so it wasn’t a surprise.

The government says it will explore the potential for a Rights Agency to oversee efforts to combat online piracy of copyrighted material, although it also stresses the need for “innovative legitimate services” and consumer education.

It also says ISPs will be required to collect anonymous information on serious repeat infringers, to be made available to rights-holders with personal details if required to do so by a court order.

(more…)

The UK music industry and ISPs don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, it’s fair to say, but despite their well-publicised disagreements over the battle against illegal file-sharing, both sides are wary of upcoming legislation from the UK government in this area.

“Any intervention must be designed to embrace new horizons, and must be fit and proper to use in a modern society and a modern culture,” said UK Music CEO Feargal Sharkey yesterday, in a MidemNet session focusing on music and the ISPs.

“Regulation brings a cost to all parties. We need to be sensitive that the debt to be paid for an imposed government solution does not outweigh the benefits.”

(more…)

Curse UK Music. We spent the bus journey in this morning thinking up a good ‘how can Feargal Sharkey become a doctor if he says a good heart is hard to find?’ joke for this post, only to realise that they’d beaten us to the post in their press release. Tsk.

Anyway, the upshot is that UK Music chief executive Sharkey will today be given an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. “I never made it to university as I was concentrating on getting on Top of the Pops,” he says. “So this is a great honour.” UK Music is working with the university on music-focused consumer market research projects.

The press releases notes that Sharkey will be “sticking to his day job and not switching to Cardiology”. Damn them.

Music industry umbrella body UK Music has declared its support for a new co-regulatory system between ISPs, the music industry and the government to fight illegal P2P file-sharing.

“In the view of the historic differences between rights holders and ISPs, some form of regulatory control is required,” says the body’s submission to the current consultation process being overseen by the Department for Business Enterprises and Regulatory Reform. “A third-party regulator is likely to help overcome the mutual caution that has been characteristic of many past discussions between rights holders and ISPs.”

The consultation process follows the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the music industry and ISPs earlier this year, which committed all concerned to tackling the problem of internet piracy.