Can The Internet Renew The Classical Music World?
Eric BAPTISTE, Secretary General, CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers)
My perspective would come from three points of view: first as secretary general of CISAC, second as a former radio executive, and third as chairman of a French Government think tank that just produced a report on "digital convergence".
From the CISAC perspective
CISAC is an organization with 200 members in 98 countries. Most are musical rights societies, some deal with other rights (literary, audio-visual, still pictures etc.).
For those societies, the internet is a real challenge because is seems impossible to use the current framework of reciprocal agreements between societies to grant licenses to internet services. The network of reciprocal agreements has been able to adapt to all changes so far. However, since these agreements are territorial-based, they are close to irrelevant in the internet where the potential audience of any web site is, by nature, global.
So, as far as the societies are concerned with classical music, they have been trying to solve that difficult problem, and I will come back to the issue in a minute.
However, Societies are not heavily involved with classical music because a lot of it is "public domain" and can be performed without authorization and without fees going to the composer or/ and author.
Of course, some of what we call "classical" music is still covered by copyright protection (e.g. in my home country, Maurice Ravel, a classical composer, is still the number one contributor to the French music copyright organization SACEM). But, in that respect, there is no special treatment for classical music as far as the internet is concerned.
It might be a good idea however to look further into the matter since most societies are trying to support, if not "classical" music, then "serious music" through various programs. Maybe they could find schemes that would make it attractive to make available on the internet serious / non public domain classical music.
A few words on what societies are trying to achieve on the broader internet issue.
First, they all recognize the fact that although it is rather a challenge now, the internet should be of great benefit to their members (authors, composers and publishers). Indeed, and in theory at least, creators should benefit from the greater access to their works and from the disintermediation the internet is providing.
But rather than 'disintermediation', the internet will bring new intermediation. Some people talk of a world where creators will be able to send their "content" to the public without publishers, producers, media outlets and copyright societies. However, even with "intelligent agent" technology the idea that 6 billion potential creators will directly supply 6 billion customers seems quite utopian. Of course, and as always, big established creators/performers (the "top brands") will be able to do that if it is their wish. But only they will have the recognition to do so. And if current or future intermediaries provide a better service than no intermediaries, even big names will use them.
That is why I am convinced that Societies will embrace the new world, re-engineer their operations to be able to play that part and help all their members to use technology in a way that would enable them to reach new audiences in a globalized, multi-cultural, border-less world. That was the optimistic long term view.
Second, and that is the more cautious short term outlook, we still have some work to do to implement this vision.
Currently, there are efforts underway to find practical and mutually acceptable solutions to the challenge of licensing on-line services. To name a few, the discussions between European representatives of the 'major' publishers and European societies are about to start again after a idle period that followed conflicting advice received on US anti-trust implications on the ideas that were envisioned.
Another example are the discussions currently being held between BMI in the US and a number of European performing rights organizations, on an amendment to the reciprocal agreement that would work in a practical and pragmatic way in 95% of cases.
Another one is a meeting scheduled for the second half of August in Kuala Lumpur (that I will be attending) of Asian societies to try to determine the best approach they could adopt. As you can see, it is difficult, but we are working very hard.
From the other perspectives
Another perspective could come from both my past experiences in broadcasting (in the public sector but also in commercial radio) and with this report for a French Government think tank called the Commissariat au Plan.
Classical music delivery is a niche market.
And it is a niche that has not been getting much attention lately. Today, there are three main channels to access classical music:
Live performances: Probably the best way, but expensive and restricted to people in the right place (usually cities or festivals).
Records: although some are rather more expensive than pop music hits, it is fair to recognize that some are also much cheaper. The challenge here is that if you do not live in a (really) big urban area with access to huge stores, you get only a few of the recordings that are available on a worldwide basis. Even in countries where there used to be an extensive network of local record shops that could provide the advice and selection any real classical music lover would believe is necessary, those networks are disappearing, because of competition from specialized stores (FNAC , Virgin Megastores, Tower etc…) or general purpose stores (Carrefour in France or Wal-Mart in the US).
As a result it has been more and more difficult to get access to the back catalogues of classical records, except for a happy few. This has reinforced (positive feedback loop) the 'elite' status of classical music consumption and restricted its market. Of course, this 'positive feedback loop' had a very 'negative' effect.
Broadcasts: here also we have a very unbalanced situation. Some lucky listeners have access to two or more radio stations that broadcast classical music (people in Paris or London for example). On top of that you can also have access to specialized tv cable channels (I can receive 3 of them in my home in Paris) or specialized services such as MusicChoice or Multimusic. But other folks have nothing. In many countries, especially outside Europe, you do not have national radio networks that broadcast classical music. And in many markets there is no commercial broadcaster specializing in classical music (including large ones -I can remember reading about the LA market, without knowing if Angelenos finally kept their classical music station or not. That means that in today's world, it is very difficult for a lot of people to have access to classical music. And of course the internet could bring a good answer to that problem.
Classical music is a niche market. It will probably always remain so. But on the internet, you can provide niche content at reasonable costs and prices. And global niche is a huge market indeed.
It is significant that one of the most successful initiatives of the very controversial MP3.com company, is a classical music channel. On the internet, there is no limitation on specialization, so it is really possible to provide relevant services to all classical music lovers. One other very important feature is the fact that, unlike all other delivery methods, the internet is a 'multimedia' tool. This way, internet delivery of classical music would be free of the traditional dilemma traditional broadcasters have-what quantity (if any) of accompanying information to add:
Too much (as often with public sector stations) and although the specialists are satisfied the general public gets bored and does not listen.
Too few (as it is usual with commercial broadcasters) and a lot of people feel that they lack information to truly appreciate the works.
On the internet, it is possible to send multimedia streams, music with text and pictures, making the process of discovering classical music much more enjoyable and flexible.
This is why I see a fairly significant future for classical music on the internet, or on the 'infosphère' the word we have selected in this report done for the French Government to describe the world of tomorrow (measured in months and not years), in which people will have immediate and permanent access to all kind of 'content' through many devices, depending on their location, time of day etc.