Appendix 6 - International Music Council

On "the Other" hand, another interviewee underlined the fact that broadcasting services
replaces personal singing and music making at home. This process can presently be
observed in Albania, for example. In this example broadcasting appears as a unifying and
often nation wide influence reducing existing diversity compared to the many regional
characteristics of local music making.
There are also examples were private broadcasting enriches the diversity represented in
public sector. In case of the Romanian broadcasting an interviewee stressed the fact that a
certain popular musical style, manele, is almost exclusively transmitted by private services
since this music is regarded as low quality.
The proponents of free trade often argue that public broadcasting contradicts the principles
of free trade since they distort the market. These arguments are discussed in section 7.
4.2 Media 2: Digital services and the Internet
The introduction and success of the internet and other new technologies as well as related
topics such as digitalization already lead to a considerable change in state regulations
whose effects on musical diversity are difficult to evaluate at this point of time. The
significance of many devlopments, both technological and legal, are not yet fully
understood or only known to a small community of specialists in the respective fields of
expertise.
Correspondingly, many of the cultural experts interviewed for this report were not informed
about state regulations concerning new media although such regulations exist.
The following listing enumerates some programs relevant for the field. They are
symptomatic for the activities in this field in many states in Europe. Five areas of activities
can be distinguished:
1. The adoption and development of the legislative sector.
2. Increasing accessibility by making use of new technologies. Projects like virtual
library networks make use of new technologies such as the world wide web to
increase accessibility of existing cultural data and metadata.
3. Digitalization. The digitalization of existing cultural products and information on
cultural heritage and corresponding attempts of increasing access to this digitalized
information such as eMuseums.
4. Digital Art. The inclusion of works of art making use of new technologies and
demanding new technologies for a proper preservation in the established
institutions.
5. Stipulation of appropriate media competencies. In order to make use of the new
technologies citizens need to have a general knowledge about these media. Many
state supported projects in the field of new technologies aim at the development of
this prerequisite.
Several of this objectives have been formulated in the Lund principles. The Lund Principles
are a recommondation of an expert meeting in Lund, Sweden, which took place at the 4th
of April 2001.It stresses the fact that "Europe's cultural and scientific knowledge resources
are a unique public asset forming the collective and evolving memory of our diverse
societies and providing a solid basis for the development of our digital content industries in
a sustainable knowledge society." (Lund principles, http://eprints.erpanet.org/49/)
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