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c&binet forum 2009 - summary of the first afternoons discussions

Andrew | 27 Oct 2009, 19:25

Nobody can truly believe they have an entitlement to take the creative work of others for free, was Elio Leoni-Sceti’s message at the start of the afternoon session. Free has a place, he argued – as a trial, a booster, a way of engaging people with the music – but the bottom line has to be to give people what they want and make it quality, then they will wish to pay.

EMI Music’s Chief Executive looked to gaming as a useful lesson in how to create demand among an engaged online community –  neatly trailing the panel discussion on free content that followed.

Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish spoke of the ideal model for the games world leading players not to a single choice to pay for the next level but to a shopping mall of choices with emotional resonances – like playing or paying for gifts to send such as virtual flowers. Tongue in check, Robert Andrews of paidContent:UK, admired the mastery of getting someone to pay for something that doesn’t exist.

The consensus was that the way forward is quality of consumer experience – or to focus not on the stick but on ‘big carrots’.

Next, Patrick Mckenna began the Scale, Risk & Investment session by highlighting that through the digital age comes the unique opportunity of our time through access to consumers which the internet has provided. Because of this, the small companies – that make up the majority of the creative industries - can grow more rapidly than ever before, providing they have access to investment. The challenge for them is accessing finance whilst retaining their IP, which is vital to generate profit and future growth. He also pointed out that majority of financial backing comes from the major corporations, independent sources were scarce.

Simon Fuller followed saying entrepreneurs need to think long term to guarantee future success and stressed the importance that when finding an investor, make sure that they really understand your business. Don’t be afraid to take risks, however entrepreneurs need to prove their success to obtain higher market values.

Lorna Tilbian, said stock markets were not the best place for entrepreneurs to be growing their businesses, as this area wants scale and reliable profits which creatives who are starting out struggle to offer. Therefore do not rush to list too soon. 

Julie Meyer said entrepreneurs must think big, start small and move fast. However in the UK the financial investors and venture capitalists have not yet caught up with the quality of their creative industries.

The last session of the day saw a discussion about whether there was a future for Copyright in the Digital Age and centered around what the true value of online content was in the digital age

Points were made that the ability for producers to charge a higher market price should be maintained through legislators taking measures to restrict filesharing. This was backed up by an assertion that over 50 per cent of the bandwidth from ISPs was being taken up by those downloading content unlawfully. In response the point was made that by reducing the unit price of the content you would increase demand sufficiently for you to raise more revenue. The inflexiblity of the current copyright regime was criticised with points being made about the high barriers to entry, with illegal routes providing less barriers than legal routes.  Other points included the need for the establishment of a copyright framework that was understandable by consumers so that they knew their rights, as well as knowing what they couldn’t do and a short discussion about whether the EC needed to get to a common viewpoint on copyright across member states if industry were to make progress with views on both sides of the argument.