One of the questions EMI chief Guy Hands asked at the start of the year was why his company was investing quite so much money in trade associations. Why, he asked, is EMI (and the other majors) bank rolling both the Recording Industry Association Of America and the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry which, as far as he could see, were fighting the same battles? For a while it looked like EMI might quit one or the other trade bodies, until both assured Hands they'd cut their overheads.
Of course, the wider music industry has even more trade bodies, with each part of the industry represented by one or more such organisations. Government officials have long complained about the plethora of music bodies, seeking just one voice when considering issue impacting on the music business. It was with that in mind that Feargal Sharkey, appointed boss of British Music Rights at the start of the year, set about creating UK Music, a trade body of trade bodies.
BMR already existed to represent any common ground held between the three trade organisations in the music publishing sector - why not, empire builder Sharkey mused, expand that to include any common ground held between trade organisations in all music sectors (assuming, as he did, such common ground sometimes existed)? Despite reservations in some parts, eight trade bodies and collecting societies - the BPI, PPL and AIM from the record industry, the Music Managers Forum, the Musicians' Union, and BMR's existing members MPA, MCPS-PRS and BACS - all signed up to Sharkey's vision, and so UK Music was born.
But just in case government thought the music industry was becoming a simpler thing to deal with, a brand new trade body was launched, to make the overall industry association count even higher. This was the Featured Artists Coalition, aiming to represent the artists whose names we are generally familiar with, in contrast to the Musician's Union which, rightly or wrongly, is often seen to represent the interests of the session musician more strongly than those of the artists to whom albums are credited. Clearly masterminded by the Music Managers Forum, the FAC launched with a fanfare at In The City in October, though it is yet to be seen how effective an organisation run by and for rock stars can be.