So, presumably those of you working in the music business felt a seismic shift in the force on Friday as British Music Rights ceased to exist and in its place rose UKMusic, yes? Oh. "No", you say. Ah well, let me tell you all about it. There were lasers and smoke and everything.
UKMusic is a new organisation that will support and represent the wider music industry, or at least those companies and people involved in recordings, music publishing, performing, songwriting and artist management. It is the result of Feargal Sharkey's widely known ambition to expand the remit of British Music Rights, and to form a body that can speak for the whole music business rather than just one part of it. And, as a Derry boy, possibly also to ensure that the trade body he works for doesn't exclude Northern Ireland in its name.
British Music Rights, for those not paying attention, was set up in 1996 by the three organisations that exist to support those involved in writing, publishing and licensing songs - the British Academy, MCPS-PRS and the Music Publishers Association. It didn't replace those organisations, which each have somewhat different and sometimes conflicting remits, but existed to represent their common interests to government, the media and society at large.
If we're being honest, for their first decade in existence British Music Rights was a pretty rubbish organisation, with possibly the lowest profile of all the trade bodies and something of a phobia for returning phone calls. But all that changed when former Undertones man Feargal Sharkey was appointed as CEO last year. He promptly became something of a rent-a-quote for the music industry, and his team suddenly learned how to use phones.
From the word go Sharkey let it be known that he believed that what the British music industry needed most was a central organisation who could speak on its behalf, especially to government and the media, and that in his mind British Music Rights was best positioned to become that organisation.
And he is probably right to hold that belief. It's true that quite often neither government nor the media have the time or the inclination to get their heads around what the various sectors within the music business do, let alone which of the various music business trade bodies is most relevant to their enquiry. Although the Music Business Forum, set up in 2002, encouraged communication between the twenty trade bodies that operate in the music space, and occasionally spoke on their behalf to government, the MBF was never positioned as a first-port-of-call spokesperson for the UK music industry, and in reality when most people wanted a generic quote from the music business they'd head to the most high profile trade body - the BPI - who, of course, only actually represent those music companies involved in the recordings business.
All of which brings us to UKMusic, created last week via a memorandum of understanding between eight of those trade bodies - the aforementioned BPI plus the Association Of Independent Music and collecting society PPL on the recordings side, the Music Managers Forum and Musicians' Union on the management and performer side, and BMR's original sponsors from the songwriting and publishing domain, the British Academy, the Music Publisher Association and their collecting society MCPS-PRS.
The new body will be headed up by BMR's CEO and Chairman, Feargal Sharkey and Andy Heath respectively, and will be based at BMR's London HQ, a complex which is also already the home of some of those other trade bodies like the MMF and MCPS-PRS. As with BMR, UKMusic will not aim to replicate the work done by the trade bodies who signed the MOA, but will represent their common interests to government and the media, and will also stage various research and education initiatives.
Confirming the launch of the new body, Sharkey told CMU: "From the talent and creativity of songwriters, composers, artists and musicians to the vital role played by publishers, management, record labels and collecting societies, all of us within the UK's commercial music sector are bound by strong, interconnected relationships. Through UKMusic, we now have a collective vehicle to reflect and express this common ground".
Andy Heath added: "Today is a true landmark. UKMusic's broad and dynamic membership will meet 21st century challenges and expectations, and promote our fantastic industry with a clear and coherent voice".
Of course the only weakness of a body like UKMusic is that sometimes the interests of different parts of the music industry conflict - such as with the relatively recent run in between the record industry and the music publishing sector over online royalties, which was ultimately resolved without going to Copyright Tribunal, but which was pretty heated for a time. UKMusic will presumably look to stay neutral in such disputes, and maybe even mediate between the music firms and trade bodies involved - which it no doubt could do, though any such conflict will result in some tricky and tedious politics for Sharkey et al to negotiate.
The one big bit of the music business missing from the UKMusic equation is, of course, the live sector - venues, promoters and ticketing agents - which is ironic given that, prior to joining British Music Rights, Sharkey gained much of his experience in dealing with government by heading up the Live Music Forum, a body set up to investigate the impact of new entertainment licensing rules on the live sector. Presumably UKMusic will look to bring trade bodies from this sector on board in due course. Come to think of it, until he does, there probably won't be many lasers or much smoke. Unless you count the laser in your CD player. And the smoke that will surely appear if and when any dispute between the signed up trade bodies arises.