[LINK] Is copyright dead? [WAS: Special Report: The Future Of File Sharing]

[Chris Gilbey]

Hi ­ sorry been off line all day doing real world stuff so only just got to
the Link messages...

In response to Lea¹s question:


> It is only when you have a revenue flow that enables creators to
> give up a
> chunk of their income to investors that it becomes investible. To be
> investible the piece that investors get has to be big enough to
> ensure that
> it is worth while to take a risk.

Not with you in this one - what do you mean?
In what way does a creator require investors?
Interested to learn :)


I didn¹t say that creators ***require*** investors. What I alluded to was
that there needs to be a substantial level of revenue flow from a recording
to make it interesting for investors to invest (notably record companies).

I totally agree with the whole riff that Stil presented. But it is useful to
also note that the record company model (of recouping all costs as if they
are a loan) is not dissimilar to that of a VC with preferential shares as
the way of investing. The investor¹s money is in essence a loan to the start
up business that has to be repaid - then the preferential shares are
converted into common stock... The Golden rule applies. He who has the gold
makes the rules. The investor wants a big bang for his/her buck for taking
the risk. 

And regrettably, just as Stil said, most people who talk about making music,
really need validation by a corporation to believe in themselves. Mind you
there is a lot to be said for what record companies used to do. They used to
help nurture talent. But that wasn¹t good enough. Back when I was at BMG I
was asked to go to a conference/workshop with a bunch of other execs. BMG
had gotten Boston Consulting or one of those big consulting companies to
model the way that investment should take place into
new/established/successful talent which they wanted to trial with us, so
that they could get us focusing on how to derisk investment in talent... It
was interesting and has been adopted by a lot of the companies now, I
believe. That is why we are seeing so much marketing driven music out there.

On another note, a songwriter who I have helped over the years a number of
times dropped by my house this afternoon ­ he was on his way to a gig. He
told me that he wants to get something done about the Country Music charts.
He reckons that even though they are air play charts only, and no physical
sales contribute, they are bent. He told me that they are geared to favour
songs that are released by the big companies and not the independents. As a
result a lot of young artists, in his view, are becoming discouraged at
their inability to cut through. You would think that air play should be
pretty simple to measure quite accurately, so I am at a loss on this one
because, as Tom Koltai has pointed out to me, country is not big in the
online space. 

I would be interested to hear what Linkers think about this ­ assuming the
topic continues to have legs...

Regards

Chris