MUSIC INDUSTRY POLICY

8. MUSIC INDUSTRY POLICY

What is becoming clear is that the discursive opposition of ‘top-down’ to ‘bottom-up/ laissez-faire is increasingly failing to articulate the complex needs of the music industry at

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local levels. However local music scenes and industries emerged in the past, it may well

be the case that non-intervention is no longer an option.The existence of local networks and creative talent does not necessarily mean that a local industry is secure. In fact the dominant characteristic of all local music scenes in the UK is that they have failed to dent the hegemony of London as national/global music city; and only a few have secured a lim- ited autonomy from the London-based networks. From the industry perspective, the ‘provinces’ are feeder routes of talent to be developed and promoted from the head- quarter capital, with minimal investment or supply of resources to help further supply that talent. The key problem for local strategy is increasingly centred, not on retaining talent, but on developing an infrastructure that can help and benefit from this local talent as it moves towards the global centre (geographically and metaphorically).This infrastructure includes facilities (venues, studios, rehearsals, etc.) and business services (legal, financial, marketing, etc.) — but it also includes those wider networks of knowledge and creativity which allow innovation, adaptation and the development of new markets. In this context, the impact of new digital technologies could prove to be crucial. The implications for new forms of distribution are by no means clear as yet; what is clear is that the old structures of band/gig/recording are no longer the model by which we can approach local music industry policies (Frith, 1999). And as with other areas of city policy implicated in a shift towards an informational economy, the role of knowledge, connectivity and adaptability will be crucial. And non-intervention becomes retrograde. The question then becomes what sort of intervention? Such an intervention would require a knowledge of the sector and the development of new models of sector sup- port which are only slowly beginning to emerge. Indeed, the difficulty lies in that what is required is Wilson’s ‘new vision’, but coupled with an attention to detail and flexibility of delivery which local authorities have found difficult to combine. The problems implicit in Factory Records’ Anthony Wilson’s approach are quite clear here. How can these fluid networks of highly creative, highly motivated people be used by a city without stifling them by the political and administrative bureaucracy of local govern- ment? What the NQ suggests is the need to locate these networks, to understand how they operate and to try to find ways of adding value to their existing operations. Networks are informal and fluid - but certain aspects of the knowledge and information they carry can be formalised and made more widely available.This is not just in the case of basic information, but also of business knowledge — high-quality sector-specific busi- ness advice, for example, can really make a difference. New product development through new information and communication technologies has also great potential in the music sector — but this requires high skills at high cost with low visibility. Local authori- ties like high visibility — they are very ill-equipped for the highly precise and skills- intensive support entailed by the music industry. Micro-business clusters can be encouraged and supported using a ‘cultural quarter’ strat- egy, but this has to be low-key and in tune with the dynamics of the sector. Local author- ities are tempted to go in ‘feet first’.The potential for creative collaboration, joint servic- es, joint ventures is very high in these areas — but they demand attention to detail and sensitivity to the creative process itself as well as the different needs and character of dif- ferent cultural sub-sectors. This usually sits awkwardly with the outputs demanded by economic development-related funding, through which most of these initiatives are financed.The new cultural production strategy in Manchester, looking towards the deliv- ery of services to and via networks within the industry, may be the beginnings of this, but it will depend on gaining high-level strategic representation — ‘the vision thing’ — in order to have any long term chances of success. 5

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There is a general question about the new support for cultural industries. In wanting to stress the economic (wealth-generating and employment-creating) aspects of ‘culture’, the specific cultural or creative moment is in danger of being overlooked.This raises the question of how economics can come to an understanding of the context and process of the generation of value-added in the production and distribution of symbolic goods. The answer is not to turn back to a ‘culture as an end in itself ’ approach (pure creativi- ty), but to integrate the business of culture into a wider cultural policy — which in the end is a challenge to ‘free market’ economics.The problem then remains how to square the notion of culture as a central driver for cities in the next century with the powerful networks around property development which emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s. The reduction of culture to economics is here mirrored in the reduction of the assets of an area to their marketable potential.The notion of intellectual or social capital assets is alien to the discourse of this group — and yet it is these that will ultimately guarantee the long-term sustainability and adaptability of cities. This is an emerging opposition, the failed resolution of which could very well jeopardise the ability of cities to respond to the challenges of the next decade. In terms of music policy, it may indeed be inappropriate or restrictive for local authori- ties to target a ‘local music industry’ as if it were a self-contained local sector. Despite strong local identification and networks, music is the industry most penetrated by global industry structures.This is its strength and its weakness. Local talent can emerge and cre- ate local waves; but it is quickly and easily taken up in large-scale global business struc- tures. Local music scenes and acts can resonate powerfully with a local area; but a pre- condition is often a global exposure which has little in common with this local identity. Thus there may be a case for widening the scope from ‘music industry’ to include all those elements that contribute to the emergence and sustainability of a vibrant local music scene, in terms of the scene’s links to the wider environment as well as other cultural sub-sectors. This would have to recognise the wider ‘culture’ of the city and how this relates to actual participation in the production, consumption and distribution of music. In which case local authorities would have to think much more profoundly about the rela- tionship between the city, culture and globalisation than the ‘quick fix’ which the music industry seems to hold out.

Published in: Geoforum 31/2000, pp. 437–451, www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 See Northern Quarter Network, www.nqn.org.uk. 2 These were Abraham Moss and Fallover in Hulme and were not connected to any industry develop-

ment strategy as such. See MCC minutes: EDU/GP/90/147; EDU/GP/90/34 and F/90/153. 3 Indeed, the diffculties of securing such support which has led to ITC moving to Dublin, Glasgow and now

Liverpool (Manchester’s arch-rival in these matters) has brought the organisers to the point of demand- ing a music industry strategy from the city.

4 Part of the following section comes from research co-funded by ESF-Adapt (Networking for Business Advantage ), some interviews are by Dan Hill (indicated DH).

5 Manchester’s Cultural Industry Development Service is a networked service intended to act as sign-post, broker and information rely between the different networks. The city has also set up a Music Industry

Development Network intended to do the same specifically for the music industry.

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