Philippe Kern - The Independents' Voice

2005 Liverpool Audiovisual Conference: A Remake of Birmingham in 1998?

In a few weeks time the UK Presidency is convening the Liverpool conference which aims at debating the future of Europe’s audiovisual policy.

7 years after the Birmingham conference the same EU Presidency is aiming at tackling the very same subject.

What has changed since then? What did Birmingham achieve? What should be Liverpool’s goals?

New Music Sales Awards Promote Cultural Diversity

European independent music companies have launched their own awards through their association IMPALA. The IMPALA European Sales Awards are the only music sales awards to promote cultural diversity and new emerging artists on a pan-European basis. Before the launch of the IMPALA awards the only pan-European award was the IFPI platinum award which is not available for records netting under a million sales. There are four different types of IMPALA award:

IMPALA silver – 30,000 sales

IMPALA gold – 100,000 sales

IMPALA Diamond – 250,000 sales

IMPALA platinum – 500,000 sales

IMPALA double platinum – 1,000,000 sales

The awards are intended to provide a new tool for independent music companies and artists to promote themselves, both domestically and internationally. They also recognize new talent and cultural diversity, and the fact that in order to promote cultural diversity in a meaningful and practical way, success needs to be celebrated at a much earlier point in an artist’s career than when they reach 1 million sales. To quote Michel Lambot, the President of IMPALA:

“Success, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. For many independent record companies, selling 30,000 is a success. 250,000 is outstanding. 500,000 is a runaway. We now have a real mechanism to recognise this, to the benefit of European music companies, artists and consumers.”

The first award winners will be announced by IMPALA in mid June 2005. To be included on the first winners list, certifications must be completed by the end of May. Anyone wishing to apply can do so on the IMPALA website, the awards are open to entrants from any country but are judged on sales in Europe.

Pluralism and diversity: a challenge for Europe

Europe's creative industries contribute greatly to the European Economy on a social and political as well as cultural basis, but find themselves, for the most part, on the fringes of the European project. The voices of Europe's independent cultural creators are increasingly being ignored by the EU, and Europe's economy, creativity, cultural diversity, and reputation as a world leader are being endangered as a result. Despite the EU's professed ambition of preserving cultural diversity and promoting SMEs, the waving through of the Sony BMG merger, which has resulted in 4 companies having an 80% share of the world market, suggests that they are not ready to back up their words with actions.

One of the EU’s stated aims is the preservation of cultural diversity, and in order to achieve this, a wide variety of competitors within the cultural sector are necessary. However, the measures needed to achieve this, such as the allowance of state aids to the cultural sector, need to be reconciled with the EU’s commitment to a liberal internal market.

KEA has argued that there is a need for a European assembly of the cultural industries to discuss how to contribute to the creation of a vibrant knowledge-based European economy, whilst at the same time preserving cultural diversity; to marry the principles of the free market with the measures necessary to keep a varied and creative competitive environment. It is essential, if the Lisbon objectives are to be acheived, for the cultural industries to be more involved in the European project.

To read more about KEA’s stance on this issue click on the link below.

WIPO - Intellectual Property Protection

What follows is the text of a speech given by Philippe Kern to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) on13 April 2005.

70 Cents For Culture!

On the 15th March this year, the campaign « 70 cents for culture » was launched by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH). The campaign aims to secure an increase in the EU Culture Budget for the years 2007-13, from the current level of €34 million a year to a more realistic budget of €315 million. Although this would be a massive increase on the current budget, that is because the current level of EU funding for culture is tiny. It costs just 7 cents per EU citizen per year, 0.03% of the total EU budget. The revised budget would comprise 0.27 percent of the EU’s funds at a cost of just 70 cents per citizen per year.

The increase in budget is seen as especially important at a time when Europe is expanding. According to the EU president José Manuel Barroso “The questions of what Europe can do for culture and what culture can do for Europe have acquired a new sense of urgency.” The new €315 million culture budget would, among other things, go towards encouraging cross-border cultural exchanges, boosting the EU’s cultural foreign policy, and enhancing the EU’s cultural competitiveness.

The campaign has attracted significant support from all four party groupings in the EU Parliament. You can register your support for the campaign by signing the manifesto here.

For further information on the campaign you can visit the ECF and EFAH websites.

IMPALA: For Cultural Diversity.

Recently, the merger of two music industry giants, Sony and BMG, was approved by antitrust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Along with Universal, SonyBMG now control 60% of the world cultural goods and services market. This oligopoly is bad for competition and is therefore the enemy of creativity and innovation.

In response to this growing concentration of the global market, IMPALA, the association of independent music companies has launched a campaign “For Cultural Diversity”. The campaign aims to promote diversity and competition in the cultural industries as well as supporting the UNESCO convention on cultural diversity which seeks to ensure that the special nature of the cultural sector is recognised, and that it be regulated from a not purely economic point of view.

Further information as well as a petition for the campaign can be found at http://www.forculturaldiversity.org

A European Policy in Favour of the Cultural Industries

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.

Funding for European Cinema

On 20 April Philippe Kern gave a speech to the European Parliament on behalf of EFCA (European Film Companies Alliance).

He began the speech by outlining how European cinema is being increasingly marginalized by the prohibitive costs associated with marketing and distributing films. The difficulties experienced by European films in this respect have discouraged banks from investing in them.

Mr Kern went on to explain how, even though the European Investment bank has been providing loans to the film industry, it too is unable to provide loans to films that it sees as a risky investment.  In the second half of his speech he made a series of recommendations to the EU concerning their funding of the film industry.

The full text of the speech can be found here.

European integration and football

Mark Keller and Arsène Wenger are both from Alsace, a region at the heart of the European project and a leading- edge workshop of the European integration process. As highlighted by Philippe Kern, they are “telling examples of this Alsatian dual nature, products of that mixture of German affectivity and French sensitivity”. This duality is a vehicle for the European ideal. The plan to hold a debate on the role of football as a source of national and regional identity originated from these considerations. The discussions were chaired by MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit, an enthusiast of both football and European integration.

To read more ...

Everybody for cultural diversity?

The U.S. market, which is the largest in the world, is also the most difficult for non-American audiovisual products and services to access. European, African, Asian and Latin American films account for only 5% of the market in the United States. As for music, U.S. artists lord over the market with a 92% share. In recent years, British artists have seen their market share melt away like snow in April: it is currently down to 6%, compared with 30% just under 15 years ago, in spite of the fact that three of the five record giants – namely Universal, Bertelsmann and EMI – are European. In contrast with the situation in the United States, the European market is an example of openness to cultural influences from abroad. Nevertheless, Europeans are being accused of protectionism.

To read more... http://www.kernnet.com/kea/news/news06_en.pdf