15. February 2010 16:49
by
Julian
Last Thursday, the first BPI Independent/International committee meeting of 2010 took place at the BPI office in Westminster. These are normally held once a month (although January is often missed because of MIDEM), and they are generally open to any BPI independent member who wishes to attend. Consummately chaired by Dramatico’s Mike Batt, the topics on the agenda this month included a post-mortem on MIDEM; some important chart news from the Official Charts Company; an update of the BPI’s work on shaping the Digital Economy Bill and a visit by IODA’s UK digital supremo Pete Dodge to give a presentation on his company….and a quick run-down on the services that it can offer to UK independent labels.
MIDEM seemed to work well for most companies attending who were at the meeting. Although the total numbers might have been slightly down, it still seems to provide a great opportunity for networking and business. Within the discussion, there was an interesting suggestion made as to the event maybe running from Monday to Thursday. The idea being that this might address the fact that with a current start on Saturday, it sometimes seems very much over by Tuesday afternoon for many delegates. The MIDEM people I always find very accommodating and hopefully I will be meeting them very soon….so if this grand rescheduling takes place next year, you know where the idea started!
The OCC announced this week that for the first time ever the hither-to industry only mid week chart positions will be used in a Radio 1 Wednesday chart rundown, complementing the weekly one now heard on a Sunday evening. Chart battles are great for raising interest in new music and hopefully we’ll see more than a few independent fan-based new releases benefitting from this change with some welcome national radio exposure.
The Digital Economy Bill is a rather more complicated topic. Those whose grasp of the issues is far greater than mine tell me that there are three key main points that the debate is now mainly on – costs, the proposed code of conduct and clause 17. Item one is about who pays what for the notifying of infringing subscribers (at present it is proposed a 75/25 split between “right holders” and ISPs – with the former pitching up the lion’s share). We think this will unfairly disadvantage small indies and needs to be changed. The second item is about essentially how many times an infringing file-sharer has to be notified before further action can be taken – the industry has long advocated a 3 stage mechanism in this, but there have been worrying indications that Government has been considering ignoring large numbers of infringements. Clause 17 is a bit more opaque, but I’m told by those who know that essentially it’s about dealing with non P2P infringement and ‘future-proofing’ the Bill by to give future Secretaries of State the ability to deal with new technological developments. Meetings by the BPI with key players and all parts of the political spectrum are urgently directed at addressing these important matters. With an election due before too long, time is running out and the clock remains loudly ticking.
IODA are a long established digital distributor working in the independent area. It was good to have Pete Dodge from their UK office present their company and its services to the meeting. At this point, I have to report that that Pete’s computer memory stick containing his presentation didn’t meet our BPI in-house power point system specifications and unfortunately his carefully prepared series of graphs & pie-charts didn’t make it to the projector screen in the room….but we all got the general gist I think. A short and informative Q&A session ensued and the meeting closed with a number of the attending labels who weren’t already doing business with IODA, making the first moves to do just that.
The next get together will be March 10th.The meetings start at around 5.30 and generally finish around 7.30, with a chance for a quick drink afterwards for those who have time. If you are a BPI independent member and wish to attend, please email debi.blackgrove@bpi.co.uk The meeting is a real opportunity to express your views and opinions as well as meet other members of the BPI independent community, so it would be good to see you.
PS: This week I have been reading ex-Auteurs’ Luke Haines ‘Britpop & My Part In Its Downfall’; a highly recommended read from a genuine fully paid up member of the awkward squad. I’d love him to come to one of our meetings and hear how he would deal with some of the above….if only.