NMPA_International_Survey_12th_Edition

APPENDIX
C
GERMANY UPDATE
The German market continues to slump, recording
a fifth consecutive year of decline. According to
IFPI, the German market fell by 4% in units to
240.2 million in 2002, with a corresponding loss in
value of 10.3% to i2.11 billion ($1.99 billion). The
Federal Assn. of the Phonographic Industry (BPW)
places most of the blame for the slump on piracy,
though it notes that increased consumer spending on
other avenues of entertainment, including mobile
phones and video games, has also taken a toll.
Germany has now been overtaken by France as the
world’s fourth-largest music market, according to IFPI
in 2003.
Meanwhile, rights society Gesellschaft fur
Musikalische Auffurhrungs und Mechanische
Vevielfaltigungreschte (GEMA) reported total income
for 2002 of i800 million ($833 million), unchanged
from 2001.
In April 2003, the BPW released statistics showing
that the nation’s consumers used 260 million CD-Rs to
copy music in 2002—100 million more units than the
number of prerecorded CDs sold in the country during
the same period. According to the group’s figures, 486
million CD-Rs were sold in Germany in 2002, with an
estimated 53% used to burn music files, representing a
42% increase in CD-R music copying over 2001. The
report was prepared by market researcher Gesellschaft
fur Konsumforschung, based on a representative study
on a survey of 10,000 people in 2002.
According to the report, 622 million songs were
downloaded in Germany in 2002 from almost exclusively
illegal sources on the Internet, compared with
492 million tracks in 2001.
German music executives have lobbied extensively
for the government to pass new laws to stop music
piracy, and have called for the institution of an airplay
quota of at least 50% domestic repertoire in an effort to
force radio to play new releases. Minister of Culture
Christina Weiss has pledged support for such a quota,
which was promised by her predecessor, Julian Nida-
Rümelin,at the 2002 edition of the trade fair Popkomm.
In April 2003, the country’s federal parliament
passed the European Union Copyright Directive. Many
in the German music industry believe the Directive’s
anti-piracy provisions will make a dramatic difference
in the country’s sales landscape.
German retailers have also made their voices
heard, with the 100,000-member Hauptverband des
Deutschen Einzelhandels (HDE) calling for the newly
re-elected SPD/Green coalition government to help
stimulate consumer spending by allowing record
shops to stay open as long as they wish during the
week, and until 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Currently all businesses
are required to close by 8 p.m.during the week,
by 4 p.m. on Saturdays and to remain closed on
Sundays. Only retailers operating in airports, railway
and bus stations, or recognized tourist zones are
exempt from the restrictions.
A German Patent Office mediator has asked personal-computer
makers to pay copyright owners i12
($13) for every new PC they sell as compensation for
private digital copying. PC industry representatives
indicated they would challenge the recommendation.
Germany is the first country in Europe where a collecting
society has attempted to impose a copyright
levy on new PCs. Collecting societies also are trying to
impose levies on the sale of printers, scanners and
other devices that can be used to make digital copies.
European consumer organizations have been fighting
the levies on the grounds that they raise prices and
are based on a hard-to-prove assumption that people
are using computers to copy protected works. An official
with Bitkom, an organization representing 1,300
information-technology companies in Germany, was
quoted as saying the recommendation would cost the
country's consumers an extra 70 million a year.
BMG,Warner, and Universal have taken a joint 51%
stake in German chart company Media Control's Chart-
Radio, which claims to be Europe's largest licensed
web music portal. Chart-Radio, which has 650,000 registered
users and receives 2.19 million page impressions
per month, offers 11,000 tracks, including prereleases,
provided by record companies.
In the meantime, the German music industry was
reported to be finalizing terms for its own communal
platform for music downloads.Plans reportedly call for
a mid-2003 launch of a portal that would initially serve
as a business-to-business platform for music dealers
and online services. Negotiations were said to be
underway with several providers, including Deutsche
Telecom, over who should provide the technical infrastructure
of the platform.
The mayor of Berlin released figures indicating that
the music business is the fastest-growing entertainment
sector in that city,with businesses in Berlin accounting
for over 50% of total German music revenues. The
mayor’s office said the city—which is home to three
major record companies, about 50 independents, 90
music publishers, 50 recording studios, and 250
clubs—would generate revenues of more than i1 billion
($973 million) in 2002.
NMPA INTERNATIONAL SURVEY TWELTH EDITION APPENDIX C: U.K., JAPAN, GERMANY, FRANCE, CANADA, ITALY AND SPAIN UPDATES
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