Afternoon to you all
What a night we had Monday. Thanks to all of you who turned out to hear the very lively discussion as part of our In Conversation With Professor Ian Hargreaves, Richard Hooper and Dr Ros Lynch.
Professor Ian Hargreaves with the mic sat next to Richard Hooper
Our Sixty Minute Session turned into a Ninety Minute Session and could have gone on for another 90 minutes judging by the questions and debate.
A HUGE thank you to Ian, Richard and Ros for heading into a very soggy London and patiently waiting while 22 men in shorts did their (pretty unforgettable) thing.
The football became a dim and distant memory as we got stuck into our discussion around Professor Hargreaves report “Digital Opportunity – A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth” and his ten recommendations.
Hargreaves spoke at length about how he produced his report, who he consulted with and how and why he made the recommendations he did. It is one of his recommendations, namely Copyright licensing, that Hooper and Lynch are focused on and where much of the debate focused.
Eric Mackay from Vevo getting stuck in at the Q&A
On some level it was good to hear them both say that the music industry is actually better than many other creative sectors at licensing but there was still room for improvement.
The main issue is that of how you go about identifying who rights owners are. Even then, if you’re lucky enough to identify them, how you go about licensing those rights.
Stephen Navin, CEO of the MPA, joining in
A Digital Copyright Exchange is the proposed way forward although at this stage, the recommendation is that this would be a voluntary scheme.
Across creative industries around the world, many of these exchanges exist but they are not always used or even known about.
The principle is, of course, a good one – a system that consolidates all of the information relating to, in our case, a track, to streamline the licensing process for licensees, ensure people know the exchange exists, ask but don’t insist EVERYONE puts their content through it and to ensure creators get paid.
Simple.
But it is, of course, at this stage a principle.
If it is voluntary it won’t be comprehensive and also that there is still a huge issue of how creators get paid for their works. How will people know to go to the exchange? Don’t we need to make copyright part of the education curriculum?
Jona Lewis, Artist, curious about how things are handled in the US
BUT, both Hargreaves and Hooper made the point that if we do nothing, we will lose out. In a big way. Licensing has GOT to be simplified. Those that are starting to make in roads, are starting to and will continue to see the upside…..
It may be smaller than in previous years but isn’t that the way of the world?
Jon Webster CEO of the MMF, Prof Hargreaves, Dr Ros Lynch, Richard Hooper and Jo Dipple CEO of UK Music
As I said, we could have carried on chewing the fat for much longer but after 90 minutes and a debate that was overall pretty good humoured, it felt like a good time to quit and resume the conversation upstairs.
Big thanks to the lovely Carys Lavin for coming to take pics on the night too.
We’re back to our next FM taking place on the first Monday of July – quite enough bank holidays for this year – and back at our usual hang out the Alleycat Bar.
July SMS -The Olympics and Live Music – What Can We Expect in 2012Monday 2nd July 6pm.
We’re chuffed to have another stellar line up with UK Music sponsoring the discussion (and yes, that does mean a drink behind the bar!).
Come and hear, Jo Dipple – CEO of UK Music, John Probyn – COO, Live Nation and Clive Little – Director of Events and Programming, Olympic Park Legacy Company talk about how the Olympics will be providing a huge platform for the music and entertainment sectors to showcase the best of UK talent.
All the details are on the left (if you’re looking at the mailing) and on the right (if you’re looking at the website)!
You have to RSVP as usual which you can do here
That’s all for now folks – see you soon.
Sybil
