Neil Portnow, President of the US's Recording Academy (they're the Grammy people), has called on leading record producers and record engineers to take a frontline role in improving relations between the music and technology industries.
Portnow, speaking at the Academy's rather swish Grammys On The Hill event in Washington, said that too often the music and technology sectors worked against each other in the development of digital music - the music sector accusing technology firms of enabling copyright violation, the tech companies accusing the music companies of stifling innovation. He concluded: "The technology and music industries can continue the 'war', with each playing a zero-sum game in which one side must win and one must lose. Or we can work together toward an environment in which we all can win".
Portnow reckons that the two sectors should stop briefing against each other, and that they should look to collaborate on more projects, citing the involvement of the US recording and publishing industry trade bodies in the Consumer Electronics Association's Consumer Electronics Show, where the RIAA and NMPA sponsored a legal downloading area, as an example of good collaboration.
He also urged record labels and publishers to involve their artists and creators more in their negotiations with the technology sector, saying: "We all understand that copyright owners have the ultimate authority to negotiate on behalf of the music creators they represent but it will serve all our interests to ensure that artists and songwriters are informed of and included in those discussions".
It was on that point that he added that members of the Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing could play a key role, because many of their members were creators, copyright owners and technology people, and were therefore in a perfect position to bridge the gap between the music and technology worlds.