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French indies call on government to do even more
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 20 September 2010
A trade body for independent record labels in France has criticised their government’s plans for reinvigorating the flagging French record industry. This despite the French government being more proactive in kick starting the music sector than most of their European counterparts, in the main by implementing the previously reported proposals set out by Patrick Zelnik, himself a prominent member of the country’s indie label community, as CEO of Naïve and an active player in pan-European indies body IMPALA.
While welcoming the French government’s hard-line stance on file-sharing and the resulting three-strikes system that is in development, and the state-subsidised music card system proposed by Zelnik’s report that is designed to encourage young consumers to use legit digital music services, UPFI Director General Jerome Roger says the Naïve chief and French ministers’ plans do not go far enough.
Speaking to Billboard, Roger said: “From the start, the Zelnik mission has lacked ambition: What we need is a comprehensive plan. [And] given current sales volumes, producers need financial support”.
On the UPFI wishlist is a revamp of the tax break system that rewards investment in new talent, which, Roger says, is too complicated for most labels to utilise, and a new fund that directly pumps tax-payer money into smaller music companies, funding by a tax on internet service providers. Rodger argues that a similar fund has already been made available to the French movie industry.
