11/30/2008 - THE LEBLANC NEWSLETTER - ISSUE #26
QUICK TAKES
RANDOM CHUCKLE
FINAL NOTE
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
WHAT’S ON LARRY’S IPOD
THE MOTHER OF ALL HEARINGS
ALL THE JUNO NEWS FIT TO PRINT
WHAT THE HELL DOES QUEBEC REALLY WANT NOW
EC RULING: NO BORDERS HERE

In this issue:        TOP
* Biggest Music Copyright Hearing in Canada, Ever.
* Astral Media Splashes Out For Bugles & Flutes.
* Head Band Power: Loverboy To Rock Junos Like It’s 1984.
* Yanks Want to Know: What The Hell is Quebecois Culture?

QUICK TAKES        TOP
• April Wine lead singer Myles Goodwyn is in a Montreal hospital for observation after collapsing on Nov. 28, 2008 at 8:45 AM at the airport there, and hitting his head, resulting in six stitches. He was transported to hospital by ambulance. Goodwyn had complained earlier he wasn't feeling well. He had been heading to Halifax to headline a sold out Q104 Quarter Century Concert with Sam Roberts, Matt Mays & El Torpedo, and 54-40, honouring the 25th anniversary of Halifax radio station Q104. Joel Plaskett Emergency filled in their slot in the lineup.

Original members Ritchie. Jim, and David Henman were, however, in attendance for April Wine's induction into Q104's Rock of the Atlantic Wall of Fame. The audience was shown early film footage of April Wine, including a home movie of the band's second practice and a clip from an early '70s TV appearance.

• Toronto-based trio Let’s Go To War--Adrian Gough, Henry Walter and Peter-John Kerr-- wrote the music for the track “Mmm Papi” on Britney Spears’ 6th album “Circus.” They are also listed on the album’s credits as co-producer with Nicole Morier, who penned the lyrics with Spears. Last Gang Records head Chris Taylor suggested the trio submit some instrumental tracks to Los Angeles-based Kobalt Music. They submitted four songs, and one of their instrumental tune became “Mmm Papi.” Let’s Go To War, currently finishing up an album, has toured with MIA, and opened for Santogold and Chromeo.

• Barenaked Ladies has recorded its own version of Dolores Claman’s iconic "Hockey Night in Canada" theme. It will debut next month on the TSN and RDS channels. TSN is inviting other leading Canadian bands to rerecord the song. Simple Plan was the first to participate.

• CTV’s layoff of 105 employees throughout its TV operations in Toronto on Nov. 27, 2008 had more to do with slicing its work force after paying $1.7-billion last year for CHUM Ltd. properties than with dire economic forecasts. The axe fell hardest at MuchMusic, and MuchMoreMusic, both purchased from CHUM Ltd. The former CHUM Ltd. network had cut 281 jobs in July 2006, just before a takeover offer from CTV.

Other positions were eliminated at MTV Canada, specialty channel Star!, and entertainment news program ETalk. Further dismissals loom in 2009. Interestingly, CTV has a significant investment stake in broadcasting the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010. "Canada's Olympic Network,” in fact, splashed out $153 million US for its investment, an increase of 110 per cent on the $73 million US that CBC paid for the Canadian broadcasting rights for the 2006 and 2008 games.

•Country gal Crystal Shawanda took home 5 awards at the 10th annual Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards in Toronto on Nov. 28, 2008. She won top female honours as well as nods for top album and country album (for “Dawn of a New Day”) as well as for top single, and top video (for "You Can Let Go”). Double winners included Eagle and Hawk which won group and rock album categories for “Red Road Stories,” and Mdawg Music’s Mitch Daigneault who won top male artist and top songwriter honours. Canadian folk icon Buffy Sainte-Marie was the recipient of the Lifetime Contribution to Aboriginal Music Award.

• The late Toronto violinist Oliver Schroer won two trophies for his album “Hymns and Hers” at The Canadian Folk Music Awards in St. John's, Newfoundland on Nov. 23, 2008--for top instrumental solo artist, and in the Pushing the Boundaries category. Top contemporary honours went to Luke Doucet and the White Falcon, while Tannis Slimmon was named top contemporary artist. As well, Michael Jerome Browne was named top solo artist, and top English songwriter accolades went to Alberta’s Corb Lund. The inaugural CFMA Classic Canadian Album Award went to "Lightfoot!" by Gordon Lightfoot, released in early 1966.

• The late Dick Nolan is the recipient of the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at this year’s East Coast Music Awards on March 1, 2009. Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, will be the keynote speaker for the ECMA conference Among acts in 6 ECMA showcases are: Slowcoaster, the Tom Fun Orchestra, Grand Theft Bus, Pat Deighan & the Orb Weavers, Smothered In Hugs, the Monday Nights, the Motorleague, Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold, Chrissy Crowley Band, Gypsophilia, Idlers, Mary Barry, Nudie and the Turks, and Teresa Ennis.

• The Weakerthans are $5,000 richer in pocket after winning the Echo Songwriting Prize at the annual SOCAN Awards Gala in Toronto Nov. 17. 2008 for their song “Night Windows.” Meanwhile, at the French counterpart Prix de la chanson Écho in Montreal the following night, Louis-Jean Cormier and François Lafontaine of Karkwa won for their song "Oublie pas”

• Four time Grammy Award winner Tracy Chapman is now represented worldwide by Vancouver-based Macklam Feldman Management which also handles Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, the Chieftains, Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Ry Cooder, and Melody Gardot. The American singer/songwriter is currently on a two month tour of Europe, her first solo tour in 10 years. Her new album “Our Bright Future” was released Nov. 11, 2008 by Elektra Records.

• Among the keynote speakers at the 3rd annual transmission conference in Vancouver Dec. 3–6, 2008 are: Seymour Stein (Sire Records); producer Bob Ezrin; Mathew Daniels (R2G, China); and Simon Wheeler, (Beggars Group). The music and digital technology event is limited to 200 delegates from music and digital industries. Program details are at: www.transmitnow.com.

• According to the MultiMedia Intelligence report, “P2P: Content’s “Bad Boy”; Tomorrow’s Distribution Channel,” the value of unlicensed music shared on P2P networks worldwide in 2007 was $69 billion US. MultiMedia Intelligence predicts a 400 percent jump in the next five years.

• James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, announced Nov. 21, 2008 the federal government of Canada's decision to refer back for reconsideration and hearing, decisions made by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Aug. 26, 2008, concerning the licensing of two new English-language commercial FM radio stations to serve the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

On Aug, 26, 2008, the CRTC granted broadcasting licenses to Astral Media Radio and Frank Torres (on behalf of a company to be incorporated). It denied licenses to 8 other applicants that had submitted proposals at the May 2008 public hearings, including for commercial English- and French-language stations, for a French-language community radio station, and a French-language campus radio station. Moore cited the government’s recent “Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality” paper that deals with broadcasting services provided to minorities.

• Montreal has become the first Canadian market to switch to BBM personal people meters (PPMs) to gauge listenership at radio stations. Traditionally, radio ratings have been compiled based on written diaries updated weekly by a sample group of listeners. PPM devices passively record codes embedded in radio signals by the minute, providing broadcasters and advertisers a daily picture of what people are listening to and for how long. The meters will debut in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton next fall.

• Vancouver retail chain A&B Sound declared bankruptcy Nov. 7, 2008. This is the second time A&B has gone bankrupt in four years. Richmond, British Columbia computer manufacturer Seanix Technology bought A&B for an estimated $25 million in 2005 after the chain filed for court protection from creditors, citing $57 million in liabilities, and assets worth considerably less. In this current bankruptcy filing, the company's assets were $1,564,640, and its total liabilities $12,067,361.

At its height, operated by Fred and Nick Steiner, A&B was one of the biggest music and electronics businesses in Canada, doing about $300 million worth of business annually. The Steiner family still owns many of the A&B locations, including the flagship Seymour St. store in Vancouver.

• Astral Media is ponying up $700,000 over 7 years for MusiCounts, the music education charity handled by the Canadian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Over 70 schools will receive $10,000 grants for new musical instruments. Additionally, Astral Media has kicked off a national radio PSA campaign on its 81 radio stations with Quebec artists Kevin Parent and Gregory Charles to raise the awareness of music education in Canadian schools.

•Nettwerk Music Group, Universal Music Canada, and Indaba Music, a web application and social network for musicians, have partnered on the Spring 2009 release of YES! by Canadian hip-hop act K-OS. Master stems from the 11 tracks on the album have been made available to Indaba Music's community of over 100,000 musicians. On Feb. 3, 2009, K-OS will select his favourite mix from each track's submissions with those remixers picked winning both $1,000, and a spot on Universal's companion release.

RANDOM CHUCKLE        TOP

• The latest entry on the Internet homepage of the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. is dated June 12, 2008, and headlined “Canadian Creator and Music Industry Groups Applaud Introduction of Copyright Bill.” Ahhh, CRIA at the vanguard of our industry as always, and with a Thomas E. Dewey moment.

• in a deal with both Universal Music Canada and former Liberal/Conservative MP Belinda Stronach (aka “The Money”), Kiss’ Gene Simmons has relaunched his Simmons Records label. His intent is to sign three Canadian acts per year and “develop their songwriting, image and live skills.”

Simmons Records has, however, a spotty history.

It was originally launched in the late ’80s with RCA but soon died a death after a handful of releases. Simmons’ 2004 solo record, “A—hole” was released by Simmons Records, then handled by Sanctuary Music Group.

Simmons is a skilful raconteur, a delightfully reptilian carny and an astute businessman—Hey, he ain’t using his money here. But he has never shown any significant A&R chops, outside of Kiss.

As an A&R guy, he doesn't know enough to pee downwind.

Less we forget, Simmons Records, in its first incarnation, tried to introduce such acts as House of Lords, Gypsy Rose, and Silent Rage.

Writes internet blog reviewer, Justin Gaines: “Gypsy Rose was a short-lived Canadian hard rock act that was signed to Kiss mastermind Gene Simmons' record label back in the late 1980's. Simmons and/or his underlings micromanaged this band to death, forcing them to fire half of its lineup and discarded several of the songs they had already written for their debut album…..The band finally released their debut album - Prey - in 1990, and for all of the interference it was still a remarkably solid hard rock album very much in a Cinderella/Britny Fox vein.”

Later on, there was BAG on reactivated Simmons Records via Sanctuary with the upscale PR claim—“If Beck and Bob Dylan had a baby boy, and raised him spoon-fed on toxic waste, they would name him BAG.”

In a message on the current Simmons Records’ website, Simmons (the former Chaim Witz aka Eugene Klein aka Gene Klein) writes the ultimate A&R chutzpah come-on:

“Do Not --- ask what I thought of your stuff.... Do not ask when you can get our stuff back (you won't)... Do not ask for my opinions and advice...Just look at it the way a farmer plants his seed. If the fruit grows and ripens, you'll win. All the conversation in the world will probably not help. I just don't have the time to have one on one conversations with everyone. There aren't enough hours in the day. And, to be quite honest with you, most of the stuff is so far away from being marketable, that no matter what I say, the chances are slim. So, best to put your best stuff out there, and don't torture anyone with follow up calls. If they (or I) want you, you can be sure we will be all over you.

Again , I will NOT respond to submissions. Please do not take it personally.”

“Gene Simmons Family Jewels” begins its 4th season on A&E in March. The Tongued One also recently bought a house in Whistler, British, Columbia.

Boy, it seems just like yesterday that, in 1974, I watched Kiss and WEA Canada’s national promotion head Larry Green (now an announcer at Jazz FM Toronto) riding up Toronto’s Yonge Street in an open convertible in sweltering summer heat, leading to the band’s makeup dripping down their faces, promoting their debut “Kiss” album.

FINAL NOTE        TOP

Kenny MacLean, bassist with Platinum Blonde in the ‘80s, was found dead Nov. 24, 2008 in his downtown Toronto apartment. He was 52

MacLean, born in Glasgow, Scotland, had just released his third solo album “Completely” and had performed with Platinum Blonde’s lead singer Mark Holmes a few days earlier at the Mod Club at a showcase for the new album

His sister Pamela had been unable to contact him, and joined by his publicist and personal assistant, got the landlord to let them into his studio and living quarters. Pamela then found her brother collapsed in the bathroom. MacLean's apartment was in a building that also housed his company — hMh Music.

Early reports suggested MacLean succumbed to a drug overdose. However, after an autopsy was performed, friends said they were told that preliminary results suggested his death was heart-related.

In the late ‘70s, MacLean had worked in Toronto’s bustling punk scene, playing guitar with the Hairdressers, and the Suspects. The latter released an independent single “Over Exposed” in 1978 that received some local airplay and got the band the attention of Capitol Records-EMI Canada which signed them in 1979. Renamed the Deserters, their self-titled debut, produced by John Carter, was released in 1981. A follow-up album “Siberian Nightlife” was released in 1983. The band toured Canada with the Stray Cats before breaking up in 1984

The following year, MacLean joined Platinum Blonde as bassist/keyboardist for its second album, “Alien Shores,” helmed by British producer Eddy Offord. The album, featuring a guest appearance by Alex Lifeson of Rush, included the Canadian hits "Situation Critical,” "Crying Over You,” "Somebody Somewhere" (their only U.S. chart entry), and "Hungry Eyes.”

The album had a 11-week run on the Canadian charts, including being #1 for a week, and sold an estimated 500,000 copies, allowing the band to headline its own "Alien Invasion Tour" of Canada.

The band's next album, “Contact,” however, barely reached platinum (100,000 units) status. The title track single didn’t even make Top 10 in Canada. The band renamed itself The Blondes for its final release, “Yeah Yeah Yeah” in 1990 on the Justin Entertainment label.

The following year, the band folded.

MacLean continued recording with Justin Entertainment’s offshoot label BEI that issued his solo album “Don't Look Back” in 1991. The follow-up “Clear” was released by MMP Records in 2003. In 2004, MacLean produced the “Ecstatic Songs” album for Toronto singer/songwriter Julie Ann Bertram.

Rumors of a Platinum Blonde reunion, and the release of new material have been rampant since the band played a few local charity concerts in 2006. Meanwhile, MacLean worked with the cover band Rock Through The Ages, performed with the Edmonton Symphony and Orchestra London and operated hMh Music to develop emerging artists.

According to original Platinum Blonde drummer Chris Steffler, MacLean had convinced the original members to reunite for a reunion gig with rehearsals to begin the day he died.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS        TOP
• Rebecca Webster has left her Artist & Media Relations post at Distribution Fusion 3 in Toronto.

• Scott Long has been named executive dir., Music Nova Scotia, Dec. 1, 2008. He was the event manager and technical director for Nova Scotia Music Week 2007. He is also president of the Atlantic Canada Pipe Band Association.

• Bob Johnston, executive dir. of Cultural Careers Council Ontario will retire Aug. 31, 2009 after 10 years. A succession task force has been formed. Interested parties can check the job posting at the CCCO website; www.workinculture.ca.

+ EMI Music Publishing Canada is being restructured with its president Michael McCarty to be dividing his time between New York and a downsized Toronto office. As a result, Tanya Coghlan, Mike Fox and Kat Lourenco will leave the company in March.

WHAT’S ON LARRY’S IPOD        TOP
I continue to listen to Serena Ryder’s album “Is It O.K.” (EMI). She’s always had a breath-taking voice but her writing chops are now quite evident on this release that will be issued Stateside by Atlantic Records in early 2009.

Paul Reddick’s joyful “Sugar Bird” CD (NorthernBlues Music) marks him as more than a blues artist. To my ears, he’s one of the finest roots-based songwriters in Canada in league with Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot and Ron Hynes. Take note of the fascinating “John Lennon In New Orleans” track.

Britney Spears’ “Circus” (Jive) is an ambitious return to form that just falls short. But don’t count the lady out, yet. Despite this shiny album, however, the jury is still out. Let’s see how the tour works out.

Video clips found on YouTube never cease to amaze me. One my favourites features Nancy Griffith, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmy Dale Gilmore singing Clark’s “Desperadoes Waiting For A Train” on “Late Show with David Letterman.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buf6P0V45rg&feature=related

THE MOTHER OF ALL HEARINGS        TOP
The Copyright Board’s hearing dealing with performing and reproduction rights in songs and sound recordings in Canada by commercial radio stations kicks off in Ottawa Dec. 2 .

The Canadian Assn. of Broadcasters is at bat first at the two week hearing. Afterwards, SOCAN (performing rights in songs), CMRRA-SODRAC Inc., (reproduction rights in songs), AVLA-SOPROQ (reproduction rights in recordings) and NRCC and ARTISTI (performing rights in recordings) will each have their turn at the plate.

This “Super Hearing” is a landmark. It is the first time Canadian-based music labels have sought broadcast mechanicals from broadcasters, making it one of most important proceeding ever for broadcasters, record labels, music publishers, songwriters, and artists alike.

While this is the first time the federal Board has consolidated all radio-related tariffs into a single proceeding, the individual tariffs filed by the collectives are what is being considered, and the result will be a series of decisions, certifying each individual tariff on terms to be set by the Board.

The individual tariffs, and the businesses of the collectives, have not, however, been merged, and each collective is being separately represented at the hearing.

What’s really new is that all the radio-related tariffs are being heard at once, and that these individual decisions could hand or deny music creators millions of dollars in royalties as well as re-set jurisdiction over music royalty matters in Canada.

Certainly, American rights holders will be eyeballing these proceedings, particularly those record labels and artists who supported the Performance Rights Act that got to a congressional hearing, and a markup at a subcommittee level last year but got stopped.

The cornerstone of the CAB argument will be the “We Already Pay Performing Rights Fees To SOCAN Strategy,” that music is a single economic entity and should be valued as such.

Oh, yeah, and the "Times Are Tough For Broadcasters" (C) warhorse strategy will likely emerge as well.

ALL THE JUNO NEWS FIT TO PRINT        TOP
Canadian comic Russell Peters will host the 2009 Juno Awards on March 29, 2009 in Vancouver.

Nettwerk Records’ diva Sarah McLachlan will receive the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award during the Juno Gala Dinner & Awards the night before. The award, named after CHUM Ltd. founder Allan Waters, recognizes an outstanding Canadian artist whose humanitarian contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada.

Over the years, McLachlan has contributed to CARE, Engineers Without Borders, Help The Aged, Warchild, Heifer International, and MusiCounts. In 1999, the Lilith Fair co-founder founded the Sarah McLachlan Foundation to help bring music into the lives of young Canadians, particularly in underserved communities. In 2003, she established the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach – Arts Umbrella Project that offers Vancouver’s inner city youth free music lessons, educational workshops, and support networks.

Since 2006, McLachlan has been the spokesperson for the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,

This year's Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee will be Loverboy. The original members of the band, with the exception of the late Scott Smith, will in attendance for the honour with headbands, scarves and pacemakers in place.

WHAT THE HELL DOES QUEBEC REALLY WANT NOW        TOP
Whatever the outcome of Dec. 8 provincial election, culture and language will be battleground issues in Quebec for years to come.

Stripping $45.5 million from nearly a dozen arts programs just a month prior to the federal election, and Prime Minister Harper's biting remarks directed at Quebec TV stars attending galas, recently cost the Conservatives a majority government.

And the federal government has since been criticized by sovereigntists for ignoring the issue in its throne speech.

With her party trailing badly in polls, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois says the PQs would seek to pull Quebec out of federal cultural agencies like the National Film Board, Telefilm Canada, and the CRTC as well as the province should have direct control over programs run by Heritage Canada. As well, there would be a new French-language law.

Marois says she would demand $300 million from the federal government so that Quebec could handle its own cultural programs.

Meanwhile, Liberal leader Jean Charest is promising to eliminate the province’s 7.5 per cent sales tax on Québécois products and events—“as a way to support Quebec's cultural industry.”

The pledge that theatre tickets, CDs and DVDs from homegrown talent be exempt from the provincial tax would cost Quebec about $50 million in annual tax revenues. If implemented, it would almost certainly spark retaliatory measures from members the World Trade Organization, particularly the United States.

While the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allows Canada to take measures to protect its culture, it also allows the U.S. and others to take unilateral punitive actions against Canada if Quebec’s actions were deemed to discriminate against U.S. products.

Charest says he is prepared for a trade war.

Charest, however, isn’t likely to risk a trade war with a failing economy. But, in the face of the federal arts cuts, he has to be shown to be doing something to stimulate Quebec’s culture sector, which contributes $4 billion a year to the economy, and employs about 100,000 people.

The separatist PQ may be the staunchest defender of the French language and Quebec culture but its traditional calling card -- the dream of an independent Quebec -- no longer even gets the party in the door. So shaking its fist at Ottawa on cultural matters makes sense.

Isolated by language, and by its own proprietary sense of culture, Quebec has various characteristics which distinguish it from English Canada. Foremost are language, cultural distinctiveness, and small market size.

Quebec’s music industry-- part of the province's larger entertainment industry-- developed from the vacuum of the 1970s and 1980s, when the multinationals consolidated their A&R, manufacturing and head office functions in Toronto, and reduced their Quebec-based A&R activities. Quebec-based production companies and labels then established a dominating presence.

In contrast to other parts of Canada, Quebec has a more centralized music industry with distribution, primarily French-language domestic product, commanded by distributor/retailer, Groupe Archambault, a subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., and DEP Distribution Exclusive; and production dominated by a handful of French-language labels.

The ADISQ gala, the single most important event for Quebec music, recently attracted over 3 million television viewer in the province, but few Anglophones.

Today, Quebec’s French-language stars, Isabelle Boulay, Laurence Jalbert, Éric Lapointe, Dany Bedar, Marie-Mai, France D'Amour, Marie-Élaine Thibert, Daniel Bélanger, Nicola Ciccone, Pierre Lapointe and Vincent Vallières are exportable only to 180 million French speakers of the world (and largely shut out of France in recent years).

Along with Les Cowboys Fringants, Ariane Moffatt, Sans Pression and Karkwa that represent the new generation, they aren’t known to Anglophones in Quebec or Canada.

The argument that the federal Conservatives have shown little interest in culture gets full agreement in Quebec. And Charest and Marois’ use of a hot-button cultural platform is really about who can best publicly defend Quebecois cultural interests while promising to generously spend Ottawa’s arts monies.

EC RULING: NO BORDERS HERE        TOP
Five European collection societies have been thwarted in their attempt to seek a partial annulment of the European Commission’s ruling that they are violating antitrust law.

The five bodies failed to convince the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg to lift the EC decision in the summer that the European collecting societies were acting in concert by not allowing songwriters to choose which society they wanted to join.

The EC had ruled that for online, satellite and cable exploitation there has been unlawful co-ordination between the societies leading to the result that all the contracts between all societies in the EEA are territorially limited. They claimed that this co-ordination infringed competition rules and they required societies to end any restrictions on the movement of members between societies; and any exclusivity in the reciprocal contracts.

European Commission’s Article 81 prohibits agreements and concerted practices which prevent, restrict or distort competition, insofar as they may affect trade between Member States, unless justified by improvements in production or distribution.

Members of European Parliament are concerned about the increasing concentration of rights in the hands of a number of large collecting societies linked by exclusive agreements to publishers, which may lead to a restriction of choice and the extinction of small collecting societies to the detriment of minority cultures.

The EC claimed that the summer ruling is in the interest of authors, who will be free to select Europe's cheapest and most efficient collecting society. But CISAC, the organization representing several European collecting societies, argued instead that "the principle that creators are free to join whatever society they choose is already well established and widely applied.".

At the end of September France’s Sacem, Germany’s Gema and the collection societies of Poland, Finland applied for the EC ruling to be lifted while the case is heard because the length of time it will take could cause “irreparable harm” to their businesses.

At the Culture Council on Nov. 20, 2008, German and Estonian representatives emphasized that the issue of multi-territorial licensing needs to be solved. Germany called for rules for cross-border licensing that ensure access to the global repertoire and Estonia emphasized the need to take into account cultural diversity considerations when dealing with this issue.

The EC’S Internal Market Directorate General, in reacting to the resolution on cross-border licensing of online music, has proposed a dialogue between music publishers and European small and medium sized collecting societies. The dialogue would focus on the different collective cross-border licensing models that have emerged since 2005 and how small and medium sized collecting societies could better be integrated in them.