Techdirt. Stories filed under "midem"

Techdirt. Stories filed under "midem" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "midem"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:06:56 PST Ever Wanted To Present At One Of The Music Industry's Key Events? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121119/00451421087/ever-wanted-to-present-one-music-industrys-key-events.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121119/00451421087/ever-wanted-to-present-one-music-industrys-key-events.shtml case study on Trent Reznor, which remains one of the most popular presentations I've ever given. Four years later I still get at least an email a week about it, and sometimes more. The next year I went back to Midem and ran a workshop (not videotaped, unfortunately!) which was a lot of fun. We helped a bunch of industry folks think through ways to take existing acts and rethink business models and how they could better connect with fans. It was a blast. Last year, I was back on the main stage giving a presentation on how the state of the entertainment industry, and how it's actually going much better than some would believe. That was the launch of our Sky is Rising report, and also talked about how being more open, human and awesome was a tremendous way to stand out from others in the entertainment industry.

Unfortunately, due to some other commitments, I can't make it to the next Midem coming up at the end of January, but the organizers are trying something different this year. Rather than handpicking all of the speakers like they normally do, they'd like to try out some "new blood," and have opened up a Speak at Midem Competition, letting anyone under the age of 30 pitch the Midem organizers as to why you should get to give your presentation on the Midem stage. For anyone looking to take part, the initial form is here, but I can say that presenting at Midem has been tremendously helpful to me over the years. So, if you have something unique to say about the industry, and want a giant stage to present it on (and you're under 30...), why not toss in a submission?

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]]> here's-your-chance http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20121119/00451421087 Tue, 22 May 2012 15:06:00 PDT Amanda Palmer Details How All That Kickstarter Money Is Being Spent Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120522/12534119028/amanda-palmer-details-how-all-that-kickstarter-money-is-being-spent.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120522/12534119028/amanda-palmer-details-how-all-that-kickstarter-money-is-being-spent.shtml open, human and awesome is a key component to standing out against the (growing) competition these days. I used the example of Louis CK, but Amanda Palmer would be just as good. After all, her Kickstarter campaign is getting tons of attention for raising a ton of money, leading many to wonder how she did it.

But as the numbers keep going up, it's also raised a second question: where is all of that money going? And so it should come as little surprise that Palmer has opened up and explained in fairly great detail where the money is going, and highlighting that even if the campaign ends up at a million dollars (a real possibility), a very large percentage of that money is actually going back into the "product" being offered. Here's just a snippet, but you should read the whole thing:

7,000+ high-end CD-books & thank you cards cost about $15 a package to manufacture and ship. that’s $105,000.

1,500+ vinyls & cards, at about $20 to manufacture & ship…about $30,000

2,000+ art books (bearing in mind the shipping on those, every time they need to be shipped from the plant, to the distributor, to YOU, plus the signing, is killer) will cost us roughly $80,000.

PLUS we have to factor in about $15-20k to pay our design team to actually design all this stuff, and to make it super-duper amazing and worth your money. those of you who supported mine and Neil’s last Kickstarter know what i’m talking about here. this CD is gonna be a super-deluxxxxxe work of art.

the neil and kyle books are going to cost us a LOT of dough to create…let’s just throw out about $100/copy for about 100 copies…that’s 10k.

if we sell about 100 turntable packages: ordering the tables, paying the artists to paint them, shipping all that stuff around: ballpark another $15k.

arts & crafts/7-inch packages, if we sell about 300 of them, adds about another $30k (we’re planning on spending roughly $100 each on the packaging for those, including not only the vinyl but the fun arts-and-crafts activities. oh, and postage/shipping x5)

There's a lot more, but it adds up. In the end, she basically notes that the purpose of Kickstarter alone isn't to make a profit, but to invest in all of this awesomeness such that it can help sustain things going forward:

ONE…we are committed to doing amazing things for all of you who pledged. sure, it’s going to cost more to make things extra fancy (and for us to ship things for FREE all over the world), but making this stuff amazing IS THE POINT. if i skimped on making the packaging and actual products INCREDIBLE, i’d be an idiot.

and

TWO...a LOT of our income for the next year WON’T COME from this kickstarter. it’ll come gradually, over the following year: from the touring show, from the merchandise we sell on the road, from money we get in donations when i make the tracks available online, from the money i get from iTunes from the people who are sometimes lazy (like me), and so forth. it’ll be a slow burn, like it always is.

Some might think it's incredible that she could "make" a million dollars, and not come out super wealthy out of that process, but as she noted: "that’s FINE with me. it’s almost even THE PLAN." Why? Because it helps set up a variety of things for the future. This is important. As much as we've praised Kickstarter, which is completely awesome, it's not a business model by itself. It can be a piece of a business model, but it's an "event" and a limited time thing, rather than a sustainable ongoing revenue stream. Amanda is using Kickstarter wisely (obviously) not to just raise a ton of money and throw it all away (like a major label advance), but as a way to invest smartly in an awesome product while also setting up a way to keep earning money in the future.

And she's doing all of this in a characteristically open and human way.

As we said, being open, human and awesome is a key way to succeed these days, and Amanda's doing it better than just about anyone else out there.

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]]> being-open-and-awesome http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120522/12534119028 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:40:34 PST How Being More Open, Human And Awesome Can Save Anyone Worried About Making Money In Entertainment Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120210/02273417726/how-being-more-open-human-awesome-can-save-anyone-worried-about-making-money-entertainment.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120210/02273417726/how-being-more-open-human-awesome-can-save-anyone-worried-about-making-money-entertainment.shtml pretty busy traveling and appearing at various conferences over the last month, including Midem, where I released our latest research report, The Sky is Rising!. I did so with a quick ten-minute presentation about both the state of the industry... as well as the fact that the challenges for anyone in the entertainment industry can be met by being more open, more human and (most of all) more awesome: It's basically a follow-up presentation to my 2009 presentation, which introduced the Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy formula. Either way, it was fun to be back on the Midem stage, and I was thrilled with the overall response to the presentation. I heard from a lot of folks at the show about how much they liked it and how it gave them a good framework for building out their efforts as artists or as labels. It's always fun to be at Midem and talk to people on the ground about what they're seeing in the industry as well. Two years ago, I had thought that perhaps the industry had reached the bargaining stage, but I may have been wrong (or the five stages of grief aren't really applicable here). There wasn't nearly as much talk about "evil piracy" at this year's Midem... but there was plenty of lashing out about "evil Google" and how it was to blame for everything. If anything, it seemed to be a slip back into the "anger" stage. As we've explained time and time again, this anger seems entirely misdirected.

So it was nice to see so many people at Midem respond positively to my "totally positive" message about where some key opportunities were, by having them focus on how being more awesome to fans and treating them as human really has amazing results.

Separately, while I was at Midem I also did a much more technical "Midem Academy" session that was designed to be a hands-on interactive discussion about specific strategies for alternative business models that don't rely on copyright. That session was 50 minutes long and didn't have the same "entertainment" value, as I was told I had to use their limited Powerpoint format, rather than do my typical style (as seen above). Still, I quite enjoyed that discussion, and ended up spending almost as much time as we spent in the session talking to people and answering questions after the session. For some reason a lot of people were shy to ask questions to the whole group, but wanted to chat afterwards. There was also a cool "open table" session I did at "Direct2Fan Camp" at Midem, where I got to talk with a bunch of folks who were interested in new business models. That was a lot of fun.

Finally, a couple weeks before that, I was in Washington DC for the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net event, where there was a panel discussion/debate over SOPA, which was recently put online as well. That panel has myself and Steve Crocker (head of ICANN) talking about problems with SOPA/PIPA... and the MPAA's Paul Brigner and the US Chamber of Commerce's Steve Tepp defending SOPA. The panel may seem out-of-date, but it actually took place the day before the mass internet blackouts that effectively killed the bills. So, when this discussion happened, the bills (even in reduced form, without DNS issues) were still very much alive. At this point, the debate might be more interesting in a historical context, rather than a present one: Either way the discussion was also fun (and, at times, a little heated). I also found it kind of amusing that we were told that there were to be no "opening speeches," and then everyone gave an opening speech. I don't know if it's a DC thing or what, but I had to create an "opening speech" on the fly, though I tried to keep it short.

Either way, it was great to meet many Techdirt community members around the globe at these various events as well, and I hope to see more of you at future events.

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]]> make-it-happen http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120210/02273417726 Tue, 3 Jan 2012 16:08:49 PST A Busy January: Come See Me Speak (Or Come And Party) Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111230/16014417241/busy-january-come-see-me-speak-come-party.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111230/16014417241/busy-january-come-see-me-speak-come-party.shtml

First up, we've got Las Vegas for CES, where I'll be speaking on what looks to be a fantastic panel about "the content industry" in the digital age. The other panelists will be Hank Shocklee (Bomb Squad/Public Enemy), Julie Samuels from EFF and Paul Geller from Grooveshark. That's Tuesday January 10th at 2pm. If you're coming to that, I also have to recommend that you show up early for the panel right before ours (starting at 12:30pm), which will be all about SOPA, and will include some Congressional staffers (Ryan Clough from Rep. Zoe Lofgren's office and Jayme White from Senator Wyden's office), as well as Christian Dawson (of SaveHosting), Casey Rae-Hunter (from Future of Music Coalition) and Laeff Mtima, a professor from Howard University who has done fantastic work on how IP laws have been used to stymie social justice.

Also, if you are going to CES (even if you don't come to the panel), I want to invite you to a special private party being hosted by our partner SAY Media at the brand new 10oak at the Mirage. This club just opened on New Year's Eve, so you'll be one of the first to check it out, and there will be a performance by the awesome indie band Givers, along with tons of great people around, some cool tech giveaways (of course) and cocktails (also, of course). If you've never been to a SAY Media party, you're missing out. They know how to throw a good party. Since it's a private party, you'll need to RSVP and have a CES delegate's badge. To RSVP you have to send an email to CESParty@saymedia.com with the code TD VIP to get onto the guest list. If you're not on the list, you won't get in... Update: Just realized it might help if I said when the party is: it's Tuesday, January 10th, 8pm until midnight...

After you're done with Vegas, head over to Washington DC the following week, for the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net event, which runs January 17th and 18th. I don't think the full schedule is out yet, but I'll be speaking on a panel about SOPA/PIPA in the main hall on the 17th. I imagine that will be a fun time for all involved...

Jump forward to January 29th and jump across the Atlantic to the MIDEM conference (the big music industry trade show) in Cannes and I'll be doing a few things there including some mentor sessions, a "MIDEM Academy" one hour session about new business models on Sunday January 29th. Then, on Monday at 12:20 pm (precisely, so don't be late!) I'll be doing a "Visionary Monday" presentation about both the state of the the entertainment industry, including where the big opportunities are. Think of it as the sequel to the big CwF+RtB presentation I did a few years ago...

I think that's about it for now... Hope I get to meet some folks from the Techdirt community at each of these events...

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]]> your-choice http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20111230/16014417241 Mon, 1 Feb 2010 10:53:00 PST Has The Recording Industry Reached The Bargaining Stage Of Grief? Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100201/0126377984.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100201/0126377984.shtml undercurrent of anger. Even as new business models and new ideas were being discussed, it would always come back to anger at "pirates" and "piracy" and declarations of how it needed to be stamped out. While there was still some of that on the periphery, what struck me about this year's Midem was that there was very, very little talk about "piracy" or how it needed to be stopped. While there was still some chatter about things like ISPs agreeing to blanket licenses or three strikes rules, even that was a pretty minor part of the discussion.

Instead, the word that I kept hearing was "quiet." Almost everyone you spoke to mentioned how "quiet" Midem was this year. Attendance was down (apparently about 10% from last year, when I remember them saying that attendance had also been down about 10%), but that's not too surprising given the state of the economy and the general turmoil of the industry. However, it was still quite well-attended, and the thing I noticed was that there was actually quite a lot of activity going on behind the "quietness." And that activity was dealmaking. Lots of it. I talked to many people working for companies that are enabling and embracing new business models, and they were swamped with deal opportunities and discussions. Sure, the major record labels have all but disappeared from the show, but the companies that are enabling what comes next were quite busy -- just behind the scenes.

In thinking about it overall, I began to think about the famous Kubler-Ross model of the five stages of grief. You know the one: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I'm beginning to think that the recording industry has reached the beginning of the bargaining stage. Last year, we were still seeing the end of the anger stage, which followed a long period of denial. I think the bargaining stage is what we see with things like the pressure to get three strikes laws passed around the world, rather than suing individuals. It's what we see in the ACTA negotiations behind closed doors. While it's not as loud and as angry as what we've seen in the past, it's still a bit questionable. As Wikipedia notes:

The third stage involves the hope that the individual can somehow postpone or delay death. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made with a higher power in exchange for a reformed lifestyle. Psychologically, the individual is saying, "I understand I will die, but if I could just have more time..."

That sounds about right for the recording industry, doesn't it? Of course, rather than a "higher power," it's politicians around the world. I have no idea how much longer this stage will go on, but it's worth noting that the fourth stage is still depression, which apparently involves much "crying and grieving" and during this stage "it is not recommended to attempt to cheer up" those going through the grieving process. I'm not quite sure how exactly that will play out in the recording industry, but if this is accurate, then the industry will need to go through that process before finally reaching the acceptance stage that it needs to get to.

All in all, though, like the stages of grief, this is part of the necessary process, and it should be seen as a good sign that the industry at least appears to be moving through them, rather than hanging onto denial and anger completely. Midem itself was actually quite encouraging in that regard, and I'm hopeful that going forward we see more and more positive signs of an industry coming to grips with the changes thrust upon it, rather than still trying to hold back the tide. So while Midem may have seemed "quiet" this year, I think it was actually a sign of good things happening.

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]]> seems-like-it http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100201/0126377984 Thu, 5 Mar 2009 13:09:00 PST Recording Industry, Once Again, Stomps Out Optimism Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090303/0129163958.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090303/0129163958.shtml summary of my trip to the Midem music industry event in January was that it was about turning "optimism into denial." There was a tremendous sense of optimism from all sorts of upstarts: musicians and companies who were really innovating and creating wonderful success stories over and over again. And then... the old school industry guys showed up. They spoke about the optimism and the success stories... and said a few things that made it sound like the got it. They talked about ending this "war" with consumers, and focusing on solutions that worked. But, then the clouds would descend, and they'd immediately start angrily saying that even with these great new business models and innovations, "we need to stomp out piracy." In doing so, they demonstrated how severely they missed the point -- and it's now showing in their actions. We've been seeing more braindead maneuvers over the last month with highly questionable lawsuits, and licensing decisions that only serve to piss off users.

It seems that my initial read is (unfortunately) the same conclusion others are coming to as well. Two of the "industry insiders" I got to meet at the event -- who both came down on the "optimistic" side at the event have each written up blog posts for the MidemNet blog, complaining about the very same thing. That initial sense of optimism that was seen at the event has pretty much gone away -- crushed by dumb moves within the industry. Ted Cohen, who helped moderate much of the event, diplomatically points out that for all the talk of collaboration at the event, the chaos isn't over, and he wonders when we'll actually get down to business. Meanwhile, Bruce Houghton (of the excellent Hypebot blog) more specifically fears that all the talk of a more collaborative approach was nothing more than talk -- and there is no intention to really collaborate.

This is a pretty big problem -- and I obviously won't speak for either Bruce or Ted, who I'm pretty sure would disagree with this assessment -- but, it won't change until the old system and the old structures and the "old guard" are finally pushed out. There are tons of success stories -- but those are in spite of the industry, not because of it. It's time to wipe out the house of cards that the industry has built in terms of Rube Goldbergian copyright licensing schemes, and start fresh. There are business models that work great for everyone -- but the current system is designed to allow bystanders and middlemen to profit at the expense of the musicians and the public. Get rid of the old system, and everyone but those middlemen will benefit.

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]]> it's-what-they-do-best http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090303/0129163958 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:03:00 PST Not A Music Industry Crisis -- It's A CD Crisis Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090124/0814363512.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090124/0814363512.shtml last week, and beyond doing an incredible job putting together a great event they actually have a really comprehensive view of what's happening to the market. Unlike some of those in the industry they serve, the Midem organizers not only have a really clear understanding of the market changes, but they seem to be working quite hard to adjust to the times -- and they've done it before. Midem actually started (and still functions) as a "marketplace" for buying and selling music rights around the world. So, for example, deals would be made where someone would buy the European rights for a hot new American artist or whatever. Somewhere along the way, the organizers realized that with so many folks from the industry all there together, it made sense to go beyond just a marketplace, and they added a conference on top of it. Then, ten or eleven years ago (well before many other folks) they realized that the internet and digital technologies represented a profound shift in the marketplace -- and they added MidemNet on to the beginning of the event, having two days that are just focused on digital issues.

There was one thing that struck me, though, during the event -- which is that separating out the digital part as a stepchild doesn't necessarily make much sense anymore. While they do include some digital/online things during the rest of the event, having the digital part as a "separate" event feels like it's a minor side issue, rather than a core trend changing the market. I had thought of bringing that up to the organizers... but, not surprisingly, it sounds like they're already ahead of me on that. Hal Bringman has a writeup on Midem for Digital Media Wire, where he notes that the director of the event, Dominique Leguern, says that they're considering merging MidemNet into the wider Midem as the industry is evolving into a fully digital domain. Also, Leguern made a key point that plenty of people have been making for a while:

"It's not a music industry crisis, it's a CD crisis."

Indeed. It's great that Midem is in such good hands. As an "insider" music industry conference, it wouldn't surprise anyone if the organizers acted like some of the old school execs in the industry -- focusing on the past and creating an echo-chamber of people trying to recapture a lost marketplace. Instead, they've been forward looking for many years, and working to change along with the market -- and even trying to help pull some of those execs along with them.

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]]> indeed http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090124/0814363512 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:50:00 PST An Outsider Gets A Peek Behind The Scenes Of The Music Industry's Mindset: Optimism Into Denial Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090119/1924063457.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090119/1924063457.shtml
That's the good news.

But, of course, we're talking about the recording industry, which has an amazing ability to turn optimism into denial. My presentation wasn't the only bit of "good news" either. The Midem organizers did an amazing job bringing in numerous positive examples of musicians and record labels who hadn't learned to just adapt, but thrive in this changed world. It was like a who's who of folks that we discuss here on a regular basis.

The Outsiders And The Innovators:

Jill Sobule talked about her experiment with getting folks to pay various "levels" to pre-finance her latest album. She said she expected only her mom to donate originally, but instead she raised nearly $90,000 in less than two months -- even more than her original goal. She was especially shocked that someone paid the highest level ("weapons grade plutonium") which she had intended as a joke. But the woman who coughed up that $10,000 got to sing on one of the songs on the album -- though, Jill noted that they had to use Autotune to make her sound good.

Mark Kelly from Marillion spoke about the business model experiments they've been doing as well. As noted in the past, they've been doing this for years and years. Back in 1993, some fans of the band suggested opening up a bank account and donating to a pool in order to allow the band to do an American tour (in that case, those who donated didn't get anything special -- they still had to buy separate tickets to shows). From there, the band kept experimenting, using their mailing list to fund new albums, rather than go with a record label. On the latest album, they decided to go with the free music model -- giving it away entirely, and offering various levels as well (including, like Sobule, getting someone to play on the album as well), and the end result was a huge jump in mailing list names, from which the band expects to derive future revenue.

JY Park, an entertainment mogul from Korea, gave a series of examples of massive success stories he's built in the Asian market, by forgetting about trying to charge for the music, but creating full entertainment brands, where music is just a part of it. He actually has a series of "academies" around the world where he's training the next international superstars -- making sure they know at least two languages, and then getting them involved in a multimedia smorgasbord, from music to TV shows to live concerts to sponsorships and many other things. It's already proving to be a huge success with artists like Rain and Wonder Girls, and there are more opportunities from there.

Terry McBride talked about the various experiments he's been running as well with the Nettwerk Label, to take artists and figure out new ways for them to connect with fans in a manner that helps them build an all encompassing business model that brings in plenty of money.

Martin Thornkvist, who runs an indie record label in Sweden called Songs I Wish I Had Written, and who's built up a coalition of indie labels in Sweden who embrace the internet, called The Swedish Model, talked about all of the possibilities the internet has created -- and why things like The Pirate Bay can be good for music and open up new opportunities. Last year we wrote about how Moto Boy, one of the artist's on Thornkvist's label, was assembling a virtual concert from fan footage. Another cool new thing he's doing with Moto Boy is that he created a little mechanical music box that plays one of Moto Boy's songs. You can place it on any surface and wind it and it plays the song. Moto Boy's music is available for free -- but the music box is a cool souvenir that Moto Boy's true fans are more than willing to pay for.

Nancy Baym showed just how much value there was in the fan community, and the fan's relationship with musical acts -- and how musicians that had learned to embrace their fans were doing amazingly well. For example, the most talked about bands on Usenet weren't necessarily the biggest album sellers -- but they did represent a who's who of the top concert earners. There's a reason for that.

There was a session on how the Chinese music model had evolved. Almost no one buys music there, but it's still a huge money maker for musicians. JY Park had mentioned this in his presentation -- his musicians make a ton of money from brand sponsorships in China -- but there were numerous other examples of musicians in China making plenty of money through mobile subscription services. For example, some musicians get fans to sign up for special subscriptions that represent the only way for them to potentially get tickets to see those acts perform live.

To be honest, it was great to see all of these examples of openness and business models that work on display at the event. The Midem folks certainly weren't shy about bringing in "outsiders" to highlight these things.

The Insiders And Denial:

But, then along came the insiders. There was an intensely frustrating two-part "debate" over how ISPs and the recording industry needed to work together. And, even as they referenced the various presentations and examples that we all made showing that things aren't nearly as grim as they make it out to be, they immediately jumped back to the "problem" of piracy. There were so many examples of artists showing that there were business models that were working today -- often earning musicians more than they ever made before without worrying about piracy, and record company insiders would say "that's a great example to follow..." and then immediately afterwards would say "but we must stop piracy."

Actually, I should clarify that. They seemed to have learned at least some of the lingo of "embracing" file sharing -- but they would say entirely contradictory things right afterwards. It was as if they'd learned a few buzzwords, but not bothered to understand what they meant. Over and over again we heard music industry insiders say that they had made a mistake attacking fans, and that they had to learn to embrace piracy... but then, they'd immediately make a statement about how they needed the gov't or ISPs to take responsibility to squeeze excess cash out of file sharers to make up for their "losses."

It's as if they weren't even listening to what they, themselves, were saying, let alone what others were saying. Here we all were, showing how musicians were making good money (often more than they made in the past) by adopting new models, and all the insiders could talk about was how much money they were losing on piracy. The most striking may have been Kenth Muldin from Sweden's STIM, the Swedish performing rights society, who literally said: "Nothing will drive P2P file sharing from the earth. Nothing. And that's why we need to have legal sanctions against it." If nothing will drive it from the earth, why not embrace it, rather than attack it?

Even worse, that whole session was kicked off by Keith Harris, of a think tank called "Music Tank," and he set the tone for the entire "debate" by noting that all of the important stakeholders were present -- except, of course, the consumers "because they can't afford to be here." To that, everyone laughed -- but it was quite telling. The industry still doesn't believe that the actual consumers really should be a part of the conversation. The idea that they would be there for this debate seemed laughable.

Feargal Sharkey, former punk rocker and now in charge of a group called UK Music that basically represents all of the different players in the UK recording industry, was equally as contradictory. He started out by saying that the industry had made a ton of mistakes and set up adversarial relations that needed to change. But it didn't seem that he meant the adversarial relationship with fans -- but with ISPs. He said that it was time to get past the emotional arguments, and focus on reasoned arguments. And, immediately following that, he launched into an impassioned emotional argument about how "the music is all that matters" and he was sick and tired of bogus outsiders with their "utopian visions" and who spout "wild rhetoric and innuendo," but now was the time to work out commercial agreements whereby the ISPs would finally take responsibility for file sharing and start licensing. In fact, he suggested that, in the UK, at least, such agreements are months, if not weeks away.

Then there was Peter Jenner, manager of various music stars like Billy Bragg, who is nothing if not outspoken. He started out making a decent point that the recording industry was dysfunctional and had a long record of making things more complicated, not easier, but then he went on a rant about how "as long as there are free riders, there's a problem" and demanded that the gov't needed to step in and set up blanket licensing, requiring ISPs to pay up. Apparently, he's absolutely blind to the fact that you can turn free riders into a benefit. It's that old (incorrect) mentality that every freely shared copy is a lost sale, rather than an opportunity.

In fact, he made the incredibly laughable claim that if the gov't doesn't step in soon, "we will see the collapse of the entire entertainment industry." That seemed odd considering all of the examples in other sessions of musicians and record labels doing quite well despite the lack of gov't intervention. Perhaps he was too busy screaming for gov't help to bother to attend those other sessions.

As a representative from the Isle of Man gov't said: "The problem is that this industry is so focused on how much it's going to lose, it never looks at the opportunities of how much money there is to be made."

Perhaps the most amusing was Howie Singer, from Warner Music. He piped up from the audience about how their main focus was on compensating the artist. You certainly could have fooled some of the artists on Warner Music who have noticed that WMG has done plenty to make it more difficult for them to get compensation.

In that discussion, about the only reasonable voice was Gerd Leonhard, who pointed out that a better solution was setting up a truly voluntary (not mandatory) licensing offer that could be paid in a variety of ways: it could be individuals. It could be ISPs. Or, most interesting, it could be brands. What if Pepsi paid to cover all your music file sharing if you bought a certain amount of Pepsi drinks? I still don't think any such license is really necessary given these other business models, but he was one of the few in the debate actually noting that you can't do a top down solution that tries to "control" users.

Surprisingly, Geoff Taylor from BPI was much more reasonable than I expected. While he definitely wants ISPs to "take responsibility" he avoided some of the more ridiculous suggestions made by the industry in the past. In fact, when someone in the audience claimed that ISPs had to give up liability "safe harbors" Taylor pointed out that wouldn't be productive at all, and such safe harbors were at the core of how ISPs worked -- and even raising it would set the discussions back tremendously.. He's right, but it's surprising to hear that from a recording industry guy.

Basically, though, the industry insiders are still so focused on "the piracy problem" that they're blind to the idea that it might not actually be a problem -- as was shown time and time and time and time again during the other sessions. All these guys were doing was focusing on "free riders" or finding others like ISPs and the gov't to "blame" for not stepping in to fix the "problem" rather than looking at all of the amazing opportunities that musicians and indie record labels are already embracing to tremendous success.

So, for all of the optimism presented throughout the event, it was somewhat disappointing and frustrating to see the old guard still totally focused on the wrong issue. The overall event was fantastic though -- to see the various players mixing it up in a discussion like this, rather than it just being a pure echo chamber. It was just frustrating to see so much of the focus from the existing players apparently missing out on all of the amazing success stories and opportunities laid out in front of them.

Hopefully, though, with this dialog started, over the next few years, these ideas will start to permeate more deeply.

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