And so to Cannes, and news from our MIDEM man, which almost rhymes. Key players in the independent music sector used the digital music thingimy that precedes the main bit of MIDEM (still not sure why MIDEM still separate the digital bit from the other bit, given that pretty much everything industry people discuss these days is digital, but whatever) to officially launch a new organisation that will negotiate new media licensing deals on behalf of affiliated indie labels.
The new organisation, to be called Merlin, won't be an aggregator or royalty collecting agency, rather it will negotiate deals for indie labels in much the same way certain national independent label trade bodies have in the past, but on a global level. The aim it to ensure that, through collective bargaining, the indies are taken more seriously by those companies looking for digital rights, creating an organisation on similar par to the major record companies in terms of catalogue and influence.
The organisation will be led by Charles Caldas, formerly head of Australia's largest independent music and entertainment distributor Shock Entertainment. Speaking at the launch of the new body at MIDEM in Cannes, he said that the new body would ensure the independents did not suffer as the weaker party at the digital rights negotiating table: "The form of copyright apartheid currently being applied to the value of independent rights is unacceptable. Merlin will enable independents around the world to participate in new licensing and revenue models on competitive terms and give new services more direct access to their repertoire. Together we are bigger than the largest major".
Merlin has been created by the key independent music trade bodies like pan-European IMPALA and the globally focused World Independent Network. Welcoming the launch of the new group, IMPALA Chairman and Beggars Banquet boss Martin Mills told CMU: "Merlin will license collectively the individually unlicensable, and aggregate our collective volume as the virtual fifth major. Magic!"
Alison Wenham of WIN added: "Merlin is the culmination of several years' work, and will be a unique global vehicle for licensors and licensees alike. Independents will now achieve parity with each other and with the majors in getting a fair share of the revenues now being generated by new business models".
Having formally launched, the new organisation almost immediately announced its first deal, with Snocap, the company run by original Napster man Shawn Fanning and, of course, the company who will be providing the back end to MySpace's previously reported download sell through what not. The Merlin/Snocap deal should enable thousands of indie artists to start selling their music via the social networking giant (which still dominates in the world of music based social networking, even though everyone I know is now using Facebook for personal networking).