Fair Music: A Cultural Initiative Against Corporate Rip-Offs
Since music is being treated as a commodity, artists – a.k.a. producers of cultural goods – often face problems similar to those of people who produce consumer goods – coffee, for example. So, if we can trade coffee fairly, why not music? Peter Rantasa, Managing Director of Music Austria, is pretty sure that we can, and that it is the right thing to do for the artists as well as for the consumers. The German music magazine de:bug agrees: “As we all know, a small label can be just as gangster as a big one, and a verifiable logo on the CD or next to the download, telling us ‘yes, here the musician is not being ripped off’, has somehow always been missing.”
Peter Rantasa is trying to fill that gap with the fair music initiative. This project is still in a very early stage, because of the most common barrier cool projects have to break: lack of long term funding. But thanks to co-operations with the UNESCO, the EU, and several NGOs, the path is set for the first decisive steps: in September, the first fair music awards have been given to businesses that treat their artists and audiences fairly and can serve as good examples - the music store Extraplatte, the VJane-network female:pressure, freibank music publishing and the music project tonga.online. By January 2008, Peter Rantasa wants to publish a voluntary code of conduct that the labels can choose to sign and show off with. Next, the initiative will work out specific standards for the music industry and establish controlling procedures, modeled after the fair trade standards for consumer goods. With this system behind it, a fair music logo will hopefully be able to guarantee that the money you pay for music actually supports cultural diversity and freedom of expression, not profit maximization and industry monopolies.
Another component that has to be developed is the repertoire: the project needs artists and labels to transport the fair music logo. If, by chance, you are producing music and consider your business fair, you might want to contact the initiative at fairmusic@musicaustria.at. As one cultural creative appearing in the fair music video puts it: “You’ve gotta fight a bit for your rights.”
admin @ January 15, 2008