SIR -

As the world's focus turns to Britain, there is an opportunity to stimulate growth in sectors where Britain has a competitive edge. Our creative industries represent one such sector, which creates jobs at twice the speed of the rest of the economy.


Britain's share of the global music market is higher than ever with British artists, led by Adele, breaking through to global stardom. As a digitally advanced nation whose language is spoken around the world, Britain is well-positioned to increase its exports in the digital age. Competition in the creative sector is in talent and innovation, not labour costs or raw materials.


We can only realise this potential if we have a strong domestic copyright framework, so that British creative industries can earn a fair return on their huge investments creating original content. Illegal activity online must be pushed to the margins. This will benefit consumers, giving confidence they are buying safely online from legal websites.


The simplest way to ensure this would be to implement the long-overdue measures in the Digital Economy Act 2010; and to ensure broadband providers, search engines and online advertisers play their part in protecting consumers and creators from illegal sites.


We are proud of our cultural heritage and believe that we, and our sector, can play a much bigger role in supporting British growth. To continue to create world beating creative content, we need a little bit of help from our friends.



Simon Cowell
Roger Daltrey
Professor Green
Sir Elton John
Lord Lloyd-Webber
Dr Brian May
Robert Plant
Roger Taylor
Tinie Tempah
Pete Townshend

I've sold more records than all of them added together

Fairplay to you JK but how many records have you sold overall out of interes?
and where is you biggest selling region?
Also what would you do about copyright today (I know Alex's strategy is similar to yours)
but with Spotify a REAL threat to sales do you as I do subscribe to the notion that
it's all about streaming and merchandise sales?

That was a joke J&B - I should have added "I wish".

Yes; the position of music - especially as a money earner - has radically changed. Being a copyright creator and owner, I'm a big supporter of payment for the work but, like paintings and books, times change; there is far less to be earned from the old ways and more to be made from connected areas.

Sadly, a lot of "merchandise" depends on image (which can be directly opposed to music) and many aspects tend to detract from the creative process.

Take the demise of novelty hits, for example.

But then new areas emerge - TV commercials, for example.

Interesting JK. You're right about novelty songs though I think
they have found a new home in Youtube. Merchandise I think are not done
correctly hence an over reliance on image. If one takes the approach that
advertisers take then they can still be successful. Make them sponsors of the
music rather than linked to the brand of the artist.

Having said that the likes of P Diddy and all the big American acts are now
brands and they sell products. This is more like what I think works so each act
has their stable of carefully chosen products they align with and sell that.
They don't have to be involved with the creative or production process but their
management may align them.

I am interested to know more about what opportunities there are in TV commercials
so if you don't mind can you elaborate.

TV commercials require instant catchiness, like novelty tracks. And Eurovision entries. One listen; you've got it. So jingles can sell millions (remember Jeans On and David Dundas?).

JK2006 wrote:
TV commercials require instant catchiness, like novelty tracks. And Eurovision entries. One listen; you've got it. So jingles can sell millions (remember Jeans On and David Dundas?).

"Since their heyday in TV and radio advertising of the '50s and '60s, songs written for commercials have had a resurgence in recent years but in a different form. Instead of the 30-second songs you'd hear during commercials, the modern jingle is more frequently becoming a pop song in its own right."

10 Hits You Didn't Know Were Jingles