Transparency
Transparency – The key success factor for the music business?
Transparency is becoming increasingly understood as a key success factor for global society - and so how might this impact the global music business?
The music industry has been very secretive for many years. But the power of social media and the internet community is very great when it comes to shining bright lights on hidden practices. As the music companies tried to sue their customers, so musicians started to seek alternative ways to achieve funding and get away from the labels. But the collecting societies still trap musicians in the old ways. In this panel we will explore whether transparency could create more trust or will it merely help some institutions better manage mistrust?
Increasing transparency can help untangling complex matters and make interactions easier. Artists contracts, the way collecting societies work, the method that singles rise in the charts... there are so many areas where the music industry has not wanted to reveal its secrets. But as the digital impact of the internet continues to throw up new ways of making money and connecting artists to fans, being transparent and open in business practice and in showing who gets paid, seems to be a key factor in success.
So could we take this to its natural extreme? What if the music business became much more transparent and open - what if it started to work more like the stock market? With built in transparency laws that let the public invest in and also license out music? What would happen if we could really achieve global standards for communication and formats? - What if there were mandatory disclosure of deal terms, especially for those critical to the industry, e.g. licensing deals between performing rights associations and folk like YouTube?
At Reeperbahn Festival Campus 2012 majors, indies and artist managers will discuss with Industry Thought-Leader Jeremy Silver, how far transparency within the music industry can go - and where the limits are.
With:
Philipp Ginthör, Sony Music Germany, CEO, DE
Martin Goldschmidt, Cooking Vinyl Group, Managing Director, UK
Carlo Schneider, Ace Entertainment, Managing Director, LU
Host: Jeremy Silver, Semetric / MusicGlue, CEO, UK (Picture)
