Billy Bragg: Consumer Champion?
10 December 2009
Vintage rockstars seem to be wheeled out with increasing regularity to raise awareness and lobby on communications policy these days, particularly where intellectual property is discussed: Westminster wonks have become used to rubbing shoulders with Undertones lead singer Feargal Sharkey - who famously jammed with Culture Secretary Andy Burnham last year. Billy Bragg is a less familiar figure on the policy circuit. But as Parliament gets to grips with the Digital Economy Bill, he was the headline act at a gathering of media stakeholders gathered at the Westminster Forum to discuss The Future of Content Online: micropayments, digital delivery, and disintermediation.
Bragg, who represents the loosely organised lobby group: the Featured Artists Coalition, set out his concerns that the proposed measures in the Digital Economy Bill would have the impact of alienating consumers, whilst doing little to stop piracy. Open about his self interest - he said that the typical 8% of sales deals that artists get should be replaced with 50% deals now that music is delivered online - Bragg also argued that criminalising consumers would backfire on an industry that faces stiff competition from games, DVDs and other forms of entertainment.
At a time when the content industry generally is tantalisingly close to sealing a deal with Government to protect IP with the help of ISPs, Bragg and the FAC find themselves in an interesting but potentially uncomfortable position. They have broken ranks with their traditional representatives at the record companies, and ‘rights holders' who have been lobbying Government for tighter IP protection, no longer speak with one voice.
Bragg's position was opposed by Richard Mollet, director of public affairs at the BPI, who set out the detail of the decline in sales of physical music products and the alleged impact on sales of the rise of illicit file sharing. He argued that intermediaries such as the record companies he represents remain a key sector in the UK's creative economy and that the Government is right to protect their model.
The other speakers, from Universal Studios, Google, the Digital Rights Group and several lawyers and consultants described a picture where the role of intermediaries - such as record companies, broadcasters and publishers is getting more, rather than less confused. The range of services they offer: from promotion, to packaging and distribution, to protection of IP and collection of revenue is itself being disaggregated and there is intense competition among new models of packaging, promotion and distribution - and experimentation by artists who want to establish direct links with consumers on the internet.
At a time of such intense experimentation there was real doubt expressed about whether government should be involved in protecting any one business model. What became clear however, is that this debate is very much a squabble between interested parties such as artists, ISPs and intermediaries. The voices of consumers are barely heard.
One constructive suggestions on the way forward came from Steven Morrison of All 3 Media who gave a presentation on how to protect UK content in the new environment. His suggestions: to get pay tv platforms to pay to distribute PSB channels, and impose a levy on digital recorders are certainly worth looking at, but do not feature prominently in the current round of government proposals.
It is difficult for wonks of a certain generation - including myself - not to be seduced by guitar stars of a certain era - but I couldn't help being left with the impression that the really rocking gig was elsewhere: in Parliament with the discussion of the Digital Economy Bill. And with the file swappers in homes, playgrounds, colleges and pubs, up and down the country. Many of them have probably never heard Billy Bragg sing, and whilst they do still get their Teenage Kicks from music and films - many of them are quite used to doing so without paying intermediaries or artists.