[Cc-uk] PRS: What do they really think of us?

David M. Berry d.berry at sussex.ac.uk
Fri Mar 17 15:26:52 EST 2006


What do they really think of us?
------------------------------------------


I was very suprised to read today in the MCPS/PRS magazine, 'M',  
(circulated to 44000 PRS members and publishers) that Estelle Morris  
(former Minister for the Arts and Education Secretary) now ennobled  
as Baroness Morris of Yardley has accepted a job as director the PRS  
board. It seems strange that one of her last acts as Minister was to  
authorise officials to engage in discussions with the music industry  
with a view to setting up a music council... and now she is part of  
the music industry (Brass 2006: 18).

> The lack of a coherent voice has also meant that the [music]  
> industry's most pressing issue has not always been adequately  
> confronted. While a minister, Lady Morris heard anxious words from  
> within the industry about copyright law, copyright enforcement and  
> about how dramatic changes in the environment weren't being  
> addressed, but people within government were telling her that they  
> had the issue under control (Brass 2006: 21).

> The Intellectual Property Rights Forum, which she jointly chaired  
> in 2004, helped alert government to the urgency of the copyright  
> challenge, as well as helping to overcome a climate of mistrust  
> around this crucial issue. There was a lot of fear. People from the  
> industry feared that this body was going to persuade the industry  
> to give up its copyright without the consumer paying... (Brass  
> 2006: 21)

The article also discusses the Creative Partnerships that are meant  
to bring education and ideas about creativity into schools:

http://www.creative-partnerships.com

> Creative Partnerships have been the greatest success in doing this.  
> If you can bring the wild creativity and risk-taking that there is  
> in the music sector [sic] into schools, kids love it. That's how  
> they'll learn about the music industry, about copyright, to respect  
> someone else's ideas and know they have to pay for them, because  
> they've been working after school or on Saturday mornings or in the  
> holidays with Joe Bloggs who earns his living on the basis of  
> selling his creative ideas (Brass 2006: 21).

So how happy are you to know that your children are being incorrectly  
told that you have to pay for other people's 'ideas' and that the  
music industry is such a saint in regard to respecting the copyrights  
of musicians and songwriters...  Perhaps the schoolchildren and  
students would be better off reading Steve Albini when it comes to  
the 'risk-taking' of the music sector:

> Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label,  
> I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine  
> a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty  
> yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these  
> people, some of them good friends, some of them barely  
> acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless  
> industry lackey at the other end holding a fountain pen and a  
> contract waiting to be signed (Albini 1994).

The complete board is listed here:

http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/DocsRepository/3498/

Her bio is here http://www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk/DocsRepository/ 
3498/Estelle%20Morris%20biog.pdf


References:
-----------------

Albini, Steve. (1994). The Problem with Music. Retreived 17/03/06  
from http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

Brass, Richard. (2006). What do they really think of us?. In M: MCPS/ 
PRS Members Music Magazine. March 2006. Issue 19

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