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Competing with free, a few ideas after EP event

Posted by Kelvin on Jul 01, 2011 at 21:42

As Younison is currently focussing on weighing in on the EU Directive on Collective rights Management, we tend to forget that there are other domains where our position representing more than 5000 authors can be a valuable asset in driving the policy makers toward a better and fairer deal for authors.

At the EP debate on "Competing with free" organized by Telenor and hosted by MEP Mariek Schaake, Younison was invited to share it's views on how the policymakers and the industry could help to develop a better landscape for creatives to assure income is generated and authors get payed.

here is an excerpt of the positions we presented.

any feedback is of course welcome.

The main moto is:

Where money is made, artists should get payed.

So let's go make some money

All possible ways of monetizing our creations - I dread the word content as it dehumanises our individual creative work by making it a bulk commodity - is welcome provided we get a fair share of the revenues it produces.

Even though the downfall of revenue due to free usage has been felt by most artists - especially the upcoming ones living in countries with small home markets- most authors dont believe that criminalising possible future fans is the way to go.

Here are some of the ideas we as artists can support.

1. Pan EU licensing to enable niche markets to reach sustainability.

At the moment only big names and major companies will be able to go into all territories due to the massive admin by the fragmented markets.

Niche music is now not often viable due to the small scale of the local markets and can only become interesting on an EU wide level, enhancing cultural divercity.

As VP Kroes mentioned in her speech in Avignon,, EU policy should be focussed on creating an environment that is fit for the digital age, instead of building Berlin walls to protect a dysfunctional system .

2.We embrace new service models that bring in income, if it assures that the rightfully income is payed to the rightfull authors, using the available technology to discern real usage of music on and off line.

Using Fingerprinting technology, a harmonized EU split data and money stream and actually using this info to give direct feedback to the creators so they can use this to focus their dimishing budgets to maximize its impact is key to develop a new competitive landscape and the CS are best positioned to do this.

In time this could become a more valuable asset than the money it produces.

Also creative thinking could make a payable model more interesting than free riding:

Its all about the service you get

For instance, giving credits to loyal customers that can save for add ons such as premium live tickets, discounts or even meets and greets etc..

It is important to get young people, who are used to getting all for free, to want to change into a pay model once they get an income, and doing that is key to this problem.

3.if you can't buy, you'll certainly go free. Forget locking off territories

Full and synchronised availability throughout at least the EU territory.

Fans will pay for premium access, but will not wait

We are loosing millions by holding up this archaic system.

4. Reasonable pricing according to income.

Price discrimination can help get more money for faster access to new releases and give back catalogues a lower price so free riding is less interesting

Certainly towards less prosporous areas, price policy can be an incentive to go legal.

A good example of erasing free riders by giving a good service for a fine price to get a maximum of return by accessing a great number of potential customers, is the way the app store works with micropayments multiplied by large numbers

5.re-educating people into the importance of fair trade for future creation.

Nobody wants to be told what to do if they cannot understand why they shouldn't and the message is not told in their language.

If you are trying to change habits of a generation that is used to have everything for free, the message should be told in the language they understand via the channels they access.

A viral campaign using artists is defintely going to have more impact than an oppressive system that just can't work.

6.CS should be forced into service competition so the best organization gets total territory for I.e. specialist in pan EU Online rights and can leverage better deals for artists.

For example Buma is specializing in electronic artists with the proposition that they monitor big dj events to ensure that when played on these events they get the collected money instead of the top 40 artists by using a system that recognises the audio.

The problem is that the current legislation does not permit a club in Berlin to choose for this better system, undermining the possible service competition and giving Cs of big EU countries a head start in countering any competitive change.

In a time of Facebook and google becoming the powerbrokers and the rest of the players standing by holding the baby, the time is now to join forces and make the transition:

As the futurist Gerd Leonhard has been proclaiming for years

"Data is the new oil"

Our advice for a successful policy be drill, format and deliver the data to the authors, use it to instigate a service competition, let the customer choose

and may the force be with you !!

» Read on

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