OTTAWA – The dichotomy of the old and new media was clearly on display at a Parliamentary committee hearing last week. The Canadian music lobby faced off against a new media consulting firm at the Heritage committee which is studying the challenges and opportunities arising from emerging and digital media.
The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) and the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that the more money is needed to support Canadian artists (something talked about today in the House of Commons as the latest re-write of the Copyright Act, Bill C-32, has its second reading).
CIMA wants to expand the private copying levy to include any device that is capable of storing music (which the Conservative government has dubbed – and dismissed – as an "iPod tax"). SAC argues that the music industry should try to monetize music file sharing by imposing a levy on every household broadband subscription.
Duncan McKie, president and CEO of CIMA, said an expanded private copying regime is ideally suited put money into artists’ pockets.
“Benefits received in the form of copyright royalties and levies such as the private copying regime will be critical to our ongoing success and should not be reduced or allowed to atrophy,” he told committee members in his opening remarks.
Don Quarles, executive director of SOC, argued that file sharing is not going to be eliminated so it’s time to develop a way to monetize it, and bringing in the ISPs as partners is a significant step in the right direction. He added that music file sharing is one of the most challenging problems facing the music industry, but it represents potential enormous benefit to music creators.
The SOC believes that a per household levy of $3 would generate upwards of $360 million annually that could be distributed to artists and songwriters.
“Netflix, the iPad, the Kindle and other devices and models are now providing significant legal alternatives for the film and book industries,” he said “We believe, once monetized, music file sharing becomes its own solution.”
CIMA is not a fan of the ISP levy.
“You might peg it at $3, [but] our objection is it’s not enough because our system has lost over $600 million in record sales since 2000 and a great proportion of that of course has been lost by our labels,” McKie argued. “We’re not the songwriters, but we’re the creators of the licenceable goods in many cases.”
While the music lobby argued for increased fees and levies on consumers, Gavin McGarry, founder and president of Jumpwire Media (and host of the CrossMedia conference), said the music industry needs to get past this old-school thinking and take advantage of the new opportunities arising in the digital age.
“The music business is in disarray. Their entire business model has collapsed and they’ve been trying to preserve it. I don’t blame them. But there’s all these indies who are changing the way that it’s done now,” he told the committee.
There are a lot of bands that are making money by themselves without the help of a record label, who instead are using YouTube to monetize their own content. They don’t need a record label or assistance from the government, McGarry said.
The real currency in this new reality isn’t money, but data from those sharing music files. “They’ve been paying for it with something that’s much better than money. It’s their data. I’m always a bit shocked when people say that’s not money. Yes it is.”
Asked whether a three-strike rules might work, McGarry was blunt.
“No. It’s the craziest idea I’ve ever heard,” he said. “You block people [and] they’ll find a way around it. The reason why Canada is number four in the world for bit torrent downloads is that we want to watch American programming. We want to watch programming from all over the world.”
McGarry also didn’t shy away from taking a swipe at the paid music download services, describing them as “way too expensive.”
“I think at 99 cents for a song on iTunes is way too expensive. I might pay a cent, I might pay two cents, but I’m not going to pay 99 cents. It’s ridiculous.”
Besides, he asked, how much money does an artist really need to live on?
“How much money do you really need to make as an artist, if you’re doing it yourself? You make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year and you live in Fergus Ontario. Life’s good.”
