On 21 April 2005, Philippe Kern, Director of Kern European Affairs, gave a presentation to the EU conference on the cultural industries, in Luxembourg.
Philippe began by outlining the challenges facing the music industry: globalization and increased competition as well as the emerging online music market and how it should be taxed and regulated. He then went on to point out how, while the Television, Cinema, and print media sectors receive substantial state support, protection and targeted EU assistance, the Music sector receives little protection and the EU support it does receive is scattered over various programs and is not aimed at achieving any specific policy objective.
Furthermore, following the Sony BMG merger, 60% of the worldwide market share is in the hands of SonyBMG and Universal, creating an oligopoly.
Philippe then went on to explain how culture is seen as an obstacle to the internal market and integration, and the implications of this viewpoint for the EU’s participation in the negotiations at UNESCO for an international instrument to protect cultural diversity.
The full text of the speech can be found here.
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