På MIDEM samlades ett stort antal oberoende musikförlag. Tillsammans har man bildat organisationen Independent Music Publishers Forum (IMPF).
Utifrån dagens situation i den europeiska musikbranschen och hela den internationella musikbranschen kommer IMPF att arbeta för att samla de oberoende musikförlagens krafter i syfte att säkerställa att deras gemensamma idéer och röster blir hörda inom ICMP (International Confederation of Music Publishers), särskilt i diskussionerna om Global Repertoire Database.
På MIDEM undertecknade IMPF, där den svenske musikföläggaren Niclass Björlund (Edition Björlund) är en av de drivande krafterna, följande manifest:
”Since the end of the 90s, the music industry has changed dramatically. Due to the digital use of music, CD sales collapsed, so that the music industry has experienced great changes over the past years.
The labels suffered in particular and had to reduce about 50% of their staff European wide. They had to develop new ideas and concepts to secure their existence on the market:
The crisis also reached the music publishers whose income for mechanical performances dropped very much, so that they were also forced to review their business models and needed to be open for changes. The major publishers have meanwhile got new owners, sold and bought catalogs and were bought themselves. Independent publishers were also affected by company sales, so that great changes can also be perceived here.
Due to the guidelines of the European Commission, the collecting societies were forced to offer their online rights to the users on a European-wide basis which they have done with different models.
Ultimately, the European Commission wanted to ensure that the users have access to a single, coherent database of songs in Europe, giving them the opportunity to acquire their licenses on the basis of such a database. This shall now be installed with a Global Repertoire Database (GRD). The Independent music publishers note with great concern that the collecting societies are not the only parties involved in the discussion forums about the GRD, but that companies such as Google take direct part in the proceedings, playing a major role in shaping them. This creates particular concern because the whole issue involves data from various collecting societies which these collecting societies received from their respective members who are very worried that these data now fall into the wrong hands via GRD.
Confronted by an ever increasing consolidated market, by a continuing internationalization of the music copyright world, by a fast moving technological environment, the Independent Music Publishers felt it was time to have a place to think together, act together and have decided to create the Independent Music Publishers Forum.
The members of the Independent Music Publishers Forum are therefore striving to bundle their forces to make sure that their ideas and concerns on the GRD are heard at the ICMP (International Confederation of Music Publishers) and consequently at the GRD Working Group.”
Claes Olson
Bilden: Grundarna av International Music Managers Forum, med Niclass Björlund (Edition Björlund, Sverige) trea fr.v. i bakre raden.
