Dave Haynes

I’m not sure what to make of this. Self appointed group Era Digital (the digital arm of a coalition of UK Music Retailers) are “promoting a series of reforms it says are essential to maintain growth in the market”. (Source: Music Week).

They have agreed on the following five points:

1. A commercially-driven and collaborative approach to ISPs.
Era Digital believes that illegal filesharing and the unwitting role played in facilitating it by internet service providers are best addressed commercially.

2. A more open approach to new models from the recording industry.
While Era Digital notes and supports the progress made by the record industry in supporting new models beyond the a-la-carte download, it believes a step-change in openness is required. Too often, it says, the starting point for discussions is custom and practice in the physical world.

3. Encouraging competition among collection societies.
Collection societies acting on behalf of songwriters, music publishers, record companies and artists are key to the successful development of many new business models. They should be encouraged to further modernise and improve efficiency to reduce costs. Where it makes sense, global licensing should be encouraged.

4. Digital Rights Management
DRM should be abandoned for a-la-carte downloads, says Era Digital. It is confusing and inconvenient for the music fan and hampers music sales. Era Digital continues, however, to support DRM where it is needed to enable new models.

5. Clearer understanding of the digital music consumer.
Era Digital says much more work is still required to better understand consumer attitudes to and requirements for digital music services. It also sees a need for new charts tracking digital music consumption.

I’m not entirely sure what the benefits of stating the obvious are and it seems as if this is just reiterating what should already be current wisdom within the Industry. It’s good to see these points being announced if it helps more industry people out of the dark ages but I would have preferred something a little extra to whet my own appetite.

I also disagree with some of the points, but will have to leave my thoughts for a later date.