But what is there for all these interest groups to campaign on? Well, there's the growing resentment of Form 696, the paperwork used by London authorities for licensing live music events which some argue requests too much personal data about performers and their genres, and which could be used to discriminate against those genres associated with certain ethnic groups. And there's the use of music by certain governments - the US in particular - in order to torture political prisoners into submission. Worthy issues on which to campaign.
But two other issues dominated this year - ISPs' involvement in combating piracy, and copyright extension.
Some in the music industry have long argued that the internet service providers should be doing more to combat online piracy - with those who like a good conspiracy theory arguing the ISPs turned a blind eye to illegal file sharing in the early days of the internet because, with few official services offering multi-media content, it provided an incentive for users to upgrade to more expensive broadband services.
With the "sue everyone" approach to online piracy pursued by the Recording Industry Association Of America achieving so little, apart from pissing everyone off (so much so even the RIAA announced it was dropping that strategy last week), label execs have been putting more and more time into persuading the ISPs that they should help monitor content distribution on their networks, and challenge those who distribute content illegally.
Following the news the French government were considering forcing ISPs to act against piracy through new laws (which would force them to cut off customers who persistently access illegal content), the British industry became more vocal about the issue as the year began, most notably U2 manager Paul McGuinness who made it the subject of this keynote address at Midem in January.
The net firms, though, were not so keen on the idea. Even though they no longer rely on file-sharing to sell broadband services and, indeed, would rather their customers refrain from bandwidth-draining content exchange. Although citing privacy laws as the main reason for their objection, it was obvious that the cost of implementing a piracy monitoring system and the PR challenge of cutting off paid-up subscribers was a consideration also.
Despite some in the ISP community dismissing the increasingly vocal music industry's call for assistance, most notably Carphone Warehouse's Talk Talk, and despite the ISPs' trade body nominating the BPI for the Villain Of The Year category at their annual awards, the net firms did eventually come to the negotiating table. Albeit once the UK government let it be known that, while they wouldn't go as far as their French counterparts, they would legislate to force the ISPs to act if no voluntary agreement could be reached.
A memorandum of understanding was signed by the BPI and six ISPs in which the latter agreed to send out warning letters to customers they believed were file sharing in return for talks about how the record companies could work with the internet companies to provide mutually beneficial licensed music services. The warning letters were posted (first by Virgin Media, who agreed to the measure before the MoU, and then by the other five), and then the talks began. Six months on said talks continue, with the BPI optimistic some kind of agreement can be reached, though a spokesman for Orange at a recent Music Tank event sounding less certain. Talks will continue into 2009 - it remains to be seen if a voluntary agreement can be reached or whether, in fact, the government will have to step in and make good on their promise to force the ISPs to act through legislation.
Ironically, on the other big issue government was the foe rather than the friend. Since 2006 the UK government has officially been opposed to the music industry's proposal that the recording copyright be increased, because Andrew Gowers said there was no case for extension in his Gordon Brown-commissioned review of copyright law. But in February EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy proposed an extension of the recording copyright term across Europe, from the current fifty years to 95 years, bringing it in line with the US, and called on governments within the European Union to comment on those proposals.
Cue another big push from the record industry, and especially recording royalties collecting society PPL, to change the government's mind on this issue. Petitions, open-video-letters and the like followed, until Culture Minister Andy Burnham finally announced this month he was considering proposing a compromise, extending recording copyrights to seventy years. There was a cautious welcome across the music industry, though quite how Burnham will formally respond to McCreevy remains to be seen. Also whether the record industry would really accept a 70 year term, or whether they'll continue to push for 95 years minimum.