The music industry remains in the ‘digital dark ages’ with the possibilities created by online only just becoming clear, a music business executive has said.
Jeremy Silver, specialist adviser on creative industries for the Technology Strategy Board and executive chairman of Semetric, made the comments during the Westminster Media Forum's Next Steps for the UK music industry session.
In an opening address, Jeremy said that the music industry is more complex than ever before with increasing numbers of platforms via which music can be accessed appearing.
‘The music business is in the very early stages of digital music and are only just beginning to see the possibilities … we are in the digital dark ages now and hope to reach the digital renaissance at some stage,’ he stated.
Chris Butler, head of Publishing at the Music Sales Group and chairman of the Music Publishers Association (MPA), described the current online environment as ‘fairly toxic’.
He cited the placement of advertising alongside unlicensed musical content as a challenge for regulators, particularly as this returns no revenue to music creators.
‘Google is the biggest kid in the playground and could do much more to reduce the visibility of unlicensed music,’ Chris said.
He acknowledged that while innovation needs to occur for the music industry to grow and move forward, the appropriate licensing needs to be in place to ensure that creators are correctly rewarded.
Read our previous news story on the importance of the copyright framework to music industry growth.
Jeremy Silver, specialist adviser on creative industries for the Technology Strategy Board and executive chairman of Semetric, made the comments during the Westminster Media Forum's Next Steps for the UK music industry session.
In an opening address, Jeremy said that the music industry is more complex than ever before with increasing numbers of platforms via which music can be accessed appearing.
‘The music business is in the very early stages of digital music and are only just beginning to see the possibilities … we are in the digital dark ages now and hope to reach the digital renaissance at some stage,’ he stated.
Chris Butler, head of Publishing at the Music Sales Group and chairman of the Music Publishers Association (MPA), described the current online environment as ‘fairly toxic’.
He cited the placement of advertising alongside unlicensed musical content as a challenge for regulators, particularly as this returns no revenue to music creators.
‘Google is the biggest kid in the playground and could do much more to reduce the visibility of unlicensed music,’ Chris said.
He acknowledged that while innovation needs to occur for the music industry to grow and move forward, the appropriate licensing needs to be in place to ensure that creators are correctly rewarded.
Read our previous news story on the importance of the copyright framework to music industry growth.
