Last month I posted about a recently released report commissioned by Canadian Heritage on the future of the Canadian music industry. I noted that the report provides a realistic assessment of the challenges facing the industry, emphasizing the need to embrace the Internet and new technologies without laying the blame on copyright law. I suppose somewhat predictably, the report has apparently left CRIA fuming. Billboard runs a story in which CRIA President Graham Henderson describes the report as "one-sided" and expresses dismay that copyright is not a focal point of the report. Further, Henderson claims that it is "erroneous" to suggest that independent labels have prospered in Canada.
Of course, the government and the indie labels don't see it that way. Pierre Lalonde, director of sound recording policy for Canadian Heritage, maintains that indie labels have not been as hard hit by infringement concerns, while a spokesperson for the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, the group that represents indie labels is positive about the report.
S-Oh that dreaded CRIA 6 month delay..!
The report by Shelley Stein-Sacks – fondly regarded on Eddy St as the ‘S-S-S Report’ – is from September of last year (’06). This is s-Oh typical of the CRIA to respond after a 6 month delay! And so typical of Billboard to print whatever they can get and print as news…
You know? In a world where people fly at the speed of sound and where consumers update their personal profile pages daily (sometimes more than once)… Are we not simply DONE with such an organization as the CRIA? Do we even have time any more for them – who obviously can’t manage to keep abreast of significant developments within their own industry, or manage to update their own website more frequently than every 6 months?
Do we need them?
I would like to here somebody with more knowledge than me do a thought experiment around the role the major labels play in the industry today, and whether they are needed for the prosperity of both artists and consumers.
Yes the report is dated last September, but it didn’t actually appear on Heritage’s site until earlier this year — and even the indie labels hadn’t seen it at the time. You can blame CRIA all you want, but this report didn’t see the light of day until this year….