22 MusicWeek 30.03.12 TERRITORY FOCUSPOLAND
BELOW OFF on: Poland’s growing live scene includes the OFF Festival (pictured), which this year will host Henry Rollins and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, and the Live Nation-backed Impact event
THE IFPI VIEW NEW COPYRIGHT LAWS COULD BOOST GROWTH
“So far we
Polish promotion: Dramatico’s Andrew Bowles and Katie Melua have done plenty of groundwork to break the artist in Poland
“Katie has been back and forth to Warsaw
covering TV and radio promotion ahead of her release,” he says. “It helps to take a local view and plan your campaign accordingly.” Margaret Maliszewska provides that local view
for Dramatico. Her company MJM Music PL handled the distribution of Melua’s latest in Poland. “A setback of the Polish market is that it’s very
traditional in its tastes,” she says, again flagging up the quirks of local media. “We had a problem with Katie Melua’s previous album because it was too avant-garde for Polish media. People were very responsive but the media thought, ‘Oh my gosh this is so modern’. “The trouble with the media here is that,
although we have something like 170 various radio stations of various sizes, all of them look to commercial, national stations and they don’t take risks.” While foreign acts do well in Poland
nevertheless, the country is blighted by the same stiff borders that other European territories face when it comes to exporting local repertoire. “So far we have not seen a Polish Abba, A-ha,
not even a tATu or O-Zone,” says Marek Proniewicz, MD of Sonic Records. “We are a new market, which is only very slowly adapting to the rules of international show business. “Years ago, especially in the Eighties, lots of
brilliant pop and rock songs were created in Poland, but the country’s isolation prevented them from global fame, which is a shame.” But there is wide agreement that Poland does
see international success when it comes to exporting certain genres. “Polish classical, film and jazz music has a
prominent position on the global market,” says Proniewicz. “Acts such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Mikołaj Górecki and Zbigniew Preisner are top international artists. Their works are released by the largest record companies and they play concerts in the world’s most prestigious concert halls.” ZPAV’s Staszewski explains: “With Poland
joining the EU, the European music market opened up to new Polish talent, such as pianists Rafał Blechacz and Leszek Możdżer as well as opera singer Aleksandra Kurzak, alternative folk group Kapela Ze Wsi Warszawa and metal bands like Vader or Behemoth. “We hope more and more Polish acts will
become popular internationally with the development of new digital media,” he adds. Managing director of Sony/ATV Music
Publishing in Poland Anna Laskowska is keen to build a bridge between Polish and international artists and writers.
“When international
artists come to Poland to
perform at these big
events and fantastic festivals,
I would invite them to be
more focused on what’s going
on here”
ANNA LASKOWSKA, SONY/ATV
have not seen a Polish Abba, A-ha, not
even a tATu or O-Zone. We are a
new market, which is only very slowly adapting to the rules of
international show
business” MAREK
PRONIEWICZ, SONIC RECORDS
“For artists the challenge is, in a digital era, how
to benefit from opening Poland up, cooperating with international writers and becoming a part of the international market,” she says. “When international artists come to Poland to
perform at these big events and fantastic festivals, I would invite them to be more focused on what’s going on here as well,” she adds. “Good things have happened in terms of
competition in the digital market and big events and festivals. The near future will see international artists benefitting by being here and having fun with Polish audiences.” And there’s a lot for acts to be aiming at when it
comes to Poland’s live sector. So much, in fact, that Live Nation has come up with a fairly unique concept in response. “The biggest challenges for Polish music
entertainment seem to be finding an effective strategy of how to use four brand new stadiums, as well as two big and three medium arenas,” says head promoter Steven Todd. “A good example is what we have done with
Impact Festival, being held on Friday, July 27 at Warsaw airfield. “Nowadays, in Poland, you have so many bands,
festivals, gigs and events that we have decided to propose something completely new and make a one-day festival with a great line-up,” he explains. “Our offer is ‘pay once for one intense day,
instead of losing three days and a lot of money. We respect your time and budget.’” Artur Rojek, organiser of alternative music event
OFF Festival, held in Katowice in August, says that the influence of Poland’s live scene can’t be underestimated and its prominence is only growing. “It’s the festivals that determine what people in
Poland listen to,” he says. “I can’t speak for them all but both as a fan and an artistic director and organiser of a festival, I try to give people what is valuable and meaningful, from both legendary and up-and-coming alternative performers. “I’ve always thought that as a market we’re on
the way to greater stability,” he adds. “We’re developing dynamically. “You have to remember that 20 years ago it
wasn’t possible to hear international music here unless you had an aunt or uncle from Germany who sent you original records or cassettes. And 10 years ago we had only one festival aimed at young fans of rock music,” Rojek continues, before echoing the message that seems to unite the Polish music industry as it looks beyond its borders: “The popularity of events such as OFF Festival
is proof that we are receptive. We do not want to be cut off from the rest of the world.”
FRANCES MOORE CHIEF EXECUTIVE, IFPI POLAND HAS THE POTENTIAL to be one of the most exciting music markets in Europe. Digital revenues have doubled in the last five years, while performance rights income has also grown steeply. Great Polish talent ranges from jazz pianist Leszek Możdżer to metal band Behemoth. Yet the market is still only operating at a fraction of its true potential and overall recording industry revenues declined by 7% last year. In 2011, total recorded music revenues were valued
at 242m Polish zloty (€58.3m). This is less than half the value of a market even such as Spain (€136.8m), which has a broadly similar-sized population and economy to Poland and has also been ravaged by piracy. This underlines the potential for expansion that exists here if enforcement measures could be improved. There are 14 licensed digital music services,
ranging from major international players such as Deezer and iTunes, to local services, such as
mp3.pl and Muzodajnia. Yet these licensed services face unfair competition from piracy and only accounted for 5% of record companies’ revenues in Poland last year. The government has decided to review copyright
regulations – an opportunity to look at the way rights can be protected and enforced in digital environment. The Ministry of Culture is attempting to use the review as an opportunity to facilitate digital commerce and access to music without undermining the intellectual property rights that underpin investment in the creative industries. There are, however, other voices within the
government calling for different, potentially damaging solutions. Separate proposals from the Ministry of Administration and Digitalisation would make current procedures more cumbersome and weaken enforcement rather than improving it. Rights holders believe the Ministry of Culture best understands the need for robust measures and should therefore have overall responsibility for copyright reform in Poland. Protecting copyright online has become a headline
issue in Polish politics in recent months. The country has been on the frontline of the debate over the international ACTA Treaty. Amid a campaign of misinformation by opponents, rights holders have been working to reassure policymakers and the public that ACTA is good for countries such as Poland. It is understandable there may be fears about
government regulation of the internet in countries where freedom of speech has been hard fought for in recent memory. That is why it is vital for rights holders to explain to the public that measures, whether local or international, to protect intellectual property rights online are not about censorship, but about putting in place fair rules that enable digital commerce and promote investment in artistic talent. It is only by adopting such measures to protect intellectual property that Poland will be able to claim its rightful place as a major music market in Europe.
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