Your Say

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Union fiddles while Rome burns

Dear Union,

Thank you for providing some pro active on line profile / discussion area
for your organisation.
In your cover article Business "Tide Turns Against Music Industry", the
writer discusses various industry actions and reactions.
Mr. James advises that record sales have dropped. This is not correct for
Australian sales, which have dramatically increased despite aria and mipi's
seemingly flawed statistics advocating sales had diminished.
Simply aria and their "parent" riaa are not capable of supplying information
which can stand up to objective scrutiny.
There are for example statistics which come to the conclusion that
downloading is or can be a value added marketing tool as downloaders "try
before they buy". That is to say that because of the limiting stock controls
in major retail outlets basically covering the top 40, the general public
has no "listening posts" at retail to evaluate more esoteric / niche tastes.
The only alternative is to go to the net and listen to what you want and
order accordingly. The frustration of the consumer in only receiving about
20% of world record releases here in Australia has resulted in people
"clicking" the problem away.
It would be important to add that business people are indeed in charge of
the record companies "big records"; and they don't believe in
accountability, especially to the creators of their profit - the recording
artists.
Please review the attachment, the Senator from California, Senator Murray on
fiduciary duty. These matters are not particular to the US but are in play
here.
It is amazing therefore that the Musicians Union has seen fit to do little
if anything about this continued lack of transparency and accuracy, many may
say outright theft via accounting practices which are the worst in the
entertainment business.
Until the MU becomes relevant in the ongoing problem of record company
accountability and practices it will diminish in stature and representation
of musicians.
I grieve that this once great organisation only seems to be about collecting
dues and sitting back whilst "Rome burns".
Please do not take this personally but with an election on the rise we need
to be united in our approach as to what we should expect from our political
representatives.
The Musicians Union should play a leading role in this matter, but the
silence is deafening.
I enclose the Senator's paper and last weeks decision regarding Clear
Channel.
Clear Channel are in Australia as co-promoters and are believed to be
interested in acquiring Australian Radio stations in the current round of FM
license sales, which have provided the government with over 1 billion
dollars worth of income, precious little provided for Australian Music
industry development, in return.
And the Musicians Union's view is ???
Silence.
Please don't get all defensive about this as it's unproductive.
If you want to meet and discuss, please feel free to do so, as I would like
to assist.
We need a strong well informed Union to advocate on all our behalves. I look
forward to such a time when the MU can once again represent the interests,
and not the dues of members and non members.

Nathan Brenner

The Dues has invited Mr Brenner to contribute a column to the ezine. Mr Brenner has not yet responded to this offer.

Send your emails to musosunion@aol.com

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Appalling contract turns dream to nightmare

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Never especially good at anticipating consumer demand or at management innovation, record company executives have tried to remove risks by passing them on to the musicians. It has not worked. The major record companies are in global crisis: what was the big five could easily become the big three very soon. The so-called "vulture funds" (the name implies their role) are circling.

Curiously, the situation is more positive in Australia - at least according to the official figures. It is a fact being quietly hidden. According to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), CD album sales have been falling due to file sharing. Yet in fact, according to SBS reporter Peter Martin, album sales went above 50 million for the first time last year (although it is not clear whether this is actual sales, or just the number of units produced). Not a convenient result if you wish to argue that file sharing is the end of the world, so ARIA focused publicly on falling singles sales.

The story of "Robbie" should put paid to the myth that record companies are protecting the interests of musicians (not that any further proof is required). The industry's attack on file sharing - with all the heavy legal expenses that this entails - can be expected to further reduce their profitability. The result for musicians is ambiguous. Because of file sharing, musicians' product is being taken without payment. But few musicians receive proper reward in any case (in many cases they finishe up in debt). What is to be hoped is that from the chaos of on-line music emerges a market that is a little closer to normal commerce: one in which the producers of value receive reasonable rewards, rather than having it stolen.

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