2 MusicWeek 17.01.14 NEWS
BBFC age ratings: certifiably tedious EDITORIAL
MUMSNET’S MEDDLING MINIONS appear to have scored a victory for common decency everywhere. If by common decency, you mean patently pointless and certainly painful administration. When we last enquired about the evolution of age ratings for
online music videos, it appeared all was in hand. The Government itself praised the BPI’s work over voluntary age ratings schemes in December, as it ushered in a slightly more stringent BBFC rating for music DVDs - meaning the largely meaningless ‘E’ rating could no longer be justified for adult concert and promo footage being sold to all comers. Fair enough. But earlier this week, the British Board of Film Classification
(BBFC) revealed its fuller plans for online content - and record labels aren’t getting off as lightly as they may have first assumed. The BBFC is currently working with the BPI and Google in a pilot
project to see how online classification might work. Apparently, Google has already agreed that if the BBFC age rates videos, it will honourably carry such insignia on YouTube videos. Well how ruddy magnanimous - considering that doing so doesn’t affect Google’s business practice one iota. No such luck for record companies.
“What no-one’s asking about BBFC ratings for online music videos is exactly what the
point of them is. Who are they going to stop?” According to insiders, labels will soon be expected to submit
all videos that contain anything a wee bit risque to the BBFC, who will then allocate a neat little age rating before permitting release online. Presumably, if labels repeatedly ‘forget’ to do so, they’ll be fined. Each submission, we’re told, will set them back £25 apiece. Industry estimates put videos that contain anything over ‘12A’
guidelines (and will therefore be in requirement of such a BBFC rating) at around 20% of the trade’s output. Here’s looking at you, Mr Thicke. So, roughly one in five videos coming out of UK labels may soon need to be sent to a third-party ratings body, with no current indication of how long it will take the BBFC to certify each video - nor who will be doing the certifying. What no-one appears to be asking is quite what the point of all of
this is. Yes, there are genuine concerns to be had around children accessing unsuitable content produced by the music industry. And yes, some kind of sensible vetting system is warranted: exactly like that already used by YouTube, which requires an adult profile to be logged in before you can view ‘explicit’ material. But how, in reality, does an arbitrary age rating (from a company
fully-funded by the film industry) help? Even if we entertain the Government’s obsession with slapping coloured circles on music videos, shouldn’t the music industry itself be doing the slapping? We should all be concerned that despite the cavalcade of
horrendous material accessible online, the music industry is becoming the focal point of a Government moralistic crusade. David Cameron and co. are ‘doing something’, merely because ‘something must be done!’ Labels will surely bear the brunt. Laughably, all this could end up benefitting the very demons it
seeks to censor. What’s more exciting to a teenager than something which explictly tells them they shouldn’t be watching it? BBFC ratings for online videos, then. A bit of a daft concept. But
the greatest advert Miley Cyrus could ever dream of. Tim Ingham, Editor
Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing
tim.ingham@
intentmedia.co.uk
platform built by UMPG SYSTEM’S DESIGN INFLUENCED BY GETTY AND ITUNES
SYNCH n BY TIM INGHAM
U
niversal Music Publishing has launched a new digital platform
for executives working in synch that it hopes could trump iTunes and Spotify for music supervisors and media agencies. UMPG Songs
(
UMPGsongs.com) contains hundreds of thousands of tracks from the publisher’s repertoire, from back catalogue to the latest releases. What sets it apart from rival systems, according to UMPG, is its music discovery mechanism, built specifically with synch in mind. The site, built in-house by the
publisher, allows users to search in granular detail, enabling a quick and accurate response to demanding briefs. Searches can be refined by artist, writer, genre and year, but also by instrument, specific lyric, the general lyrical theme - or even by a song’s overall mood and atmosphere. “All top publishers have
something along these lines, but in most cases, they’re merely competent or basic - I include our old system in that,” said UMPG UK senior marketing manager Alice Greaves. “Tagging by genre is the
standard, and it’s a good starting point. But we wanted to go a step beyond that - taking it to a more sophisticated level with software we control from this building and can keep improving.” An agency working for a
car company may wish to use the platform to search for folk songs with ‘driving’ as a lyrical theme, explained Greaves, but containing something as specific as a flute part. Likewise, she said UMPG is anticipating agencies searching for instrumental version of songs with a ‘Brazilian feel’ in the lead-up to the football World Cup this summer. “If you’re a supervisor or
agency and your current route to researching songs is browsing stuff on Spotify or iTunes or going to SoundsLike - which are
‘Game-changing’ synch
www.musicweek.com
“Ease of use was at the forefront. We weren’t trying to benchmark against publishers - we were benchmarking against iTunes” ALICE GREAVES, UMPG
some of the tools available right now - I would really hope that having all of this in one place will now make that process quicker and easier,” she said. Users will be approved on
different tiers of access to the site. Public users will only be able to stream songs for 30-seconds at a time, while top agencies and supervisors will be given clearance to unlimited streams and to download for free. If an executive wishes to clear
a piece of music, they can then open dialogue with UMPG by sending them a notification. “Ease of use was at the
forefront when we were building this site,” added Greaves. “We weren’t benchmarking against our old system or other publishers’ systems - we were benchmarking against Getty Images, iTunes and Spotify. These are all platforms that our clients and our artists use on a daily basis.” The site has been in a period
of closed Beta testing amongst some of the biggest names in London’s creative ad agencies for the past two months. David Bass of Platinum
Rye Entertainment called it “incredibly useful for some of the fast-paced briefs we work on”, while Paul Goodban, head of
search at Jeff Wayne Music, said it was “already proving an indispensable research tool”. Added Dan Neale, music
supervisor at Native Jungle: “This is nothing short of a game- changer for music searches - I am sure others will look to follow, but UMPG Songs is currently the pace-setter.” UMPG staff will post playlists
to the site each week, with synch executives in mind. These could range from ‘surprising cover versions’ to ‘best of…’ genre lists. They will also be able to see
user data via a dashboard, showing who’s looking at what songs and when. “If someone’s been playing a certain artist or track a lot, we might send them some gig tickets or follow up in another way,” said Greaves. The platform will launch in
more territories including Germany, Scandinavia and The Netherlands soon, with the US expected to roll it out this summer. UMPG hopes to have launched it across the world by the end of 2014. Future developments may
include stipulating when a track is likely to be an ‘easy clear’ said Greaves - covering music which is unlikely to require a lengthy negotiation over its rights.
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