FAIR MUSIC Conference in Vienna

Digitalisation has fundamentally changed the music business. After a large number of new techniques have created new prerequisites for the production, marketing and distribution of music, only one truth appears to be valid: everything remains different. The great old protagonists in the music industry still battle against sinking turnover figures, their former cash cows, like Radiohead or Madonna, don’t need them anymore. Music can be more and more consumed digital in a legal way. The Internet on the threshold of Web 2.0 develops clearly stronger to become an interactive medium than it was long sworn to be. The music fan is no longer content with the passive role of a consumer, but has become an active “prosumer”, who produces his or her own music-, film- and information programs, thus assuming the editing and moderation for others.

For the creators of music, especially newcomers, niche artists and the smaller music enterprises, there are a great number of new opportunities, as well as challenges, in this rapidly changing sphere: how do I attract attention in the Internet medium used by millions, how do I reach my fans, which business models promise success, who are the new players in the music business, and what can one learn from them? Are there general skills for an appearance in the digital environment, or is everyone a solitary explorer? Which new role models and challenges are created, and will a new distribution of tasks within the digital world be given? Or will artists become their own producers and marketers?

The laws of physics that applied to the sale of physical copies of records, CDs and the like do not seem to apply to the Internet. 100s of new companies are basing their models on non-traditional rights models.

Copyright does not only protect authors and holders of rights, it also enables musicians and record companies to make money out of music. A modern copyright law should enable new business models and artistic exchange but also provide adequate protection to the authors. Can copyright please everybody? And most important will the creators get their fair share ?

These are currently the key questions for people who create music and those who are interested in culture, and thus the themes of the mica - music austria conference on 7th & 8th of May in Vienna. The event addresses experts and musicians as well as practitioners and decision makers from smaller music enterprises (“Indies”) and publishing houses, as well as other interested parties and academics.

Through a large number of reports from the spheres of theory, empiricism and practice, participants should be able to acquire an overview of the way in which the music business changes in a digital environment, and in which direction it will develop further.