MIDEM and the music industry in 2011

MIDEM is now over for another year and representatives from all sectors of the music industry are busy digesting the comings and goings of the event. Some conference themes followed on from where they left off last year, whilst others debated new business models that rose to prominence during 2010. There were numerous cases of the traditional music industry bumping heads with supporters of these new business models. But at a number of conferences and panel sessions, there seemed to be a better understanding of some of the issues and concerns on all sides as well as a greater willingness from most of the participants to go that bit further to get their heads around each other’s issues, which in previous years, had been a source of major division. There were of course still plenty of areas of disagreement but on the whole all parties exchanged handshakes rather than insults.

Filed under: Collection societies, download, Intellectual property, Music industry, Music subscriptions, download, MIDEM, music, Music subscriptions, royalties

Is the slowdown of digital sales and the rise of free services a sign of the longer term impact of P2P?

The consequences of years of file sharing are, according to the recorded-music industry, pretty much evident in most countries with sales significantly lower than they were a decade ago. This is made very clear in the new IFPI Digital Music Report published earlier today. Legal online and mobile services continue to pit their wits against P2P networks that offer a similar experience but at no cost. Convincing music users to opt for legal alternatives is a difficult enough task in itself, but is the advertising-supported model doing more harm than good by reinforcing the conditioning of consumers that music should be free?

Filed under: Uncategorized