The recent arrival of singer David Bowie on the futures market was a symbol of the music industry's importance, the chief executive of the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) said at an IBEC seminar on Music Means Business yesterday.
Mr Hugh Duffy said the future was bright but Ireland's new copyright law would have to be the cornerstone of a further explosion of creative output. He added that the electronic circulation of four of U2's songs on the Internet after the band's recent Lansdowne Road concert illustrated the need for clear national and international legislation.
The multiplicity of agencies involved in establishing the Internet link right, the mechanical right and the broadcast right illustrated the need for a one-stop-shop for multi-media exercises. Mr Tommy McCabe of the IBEC Music Industry Group said VAT rates on CDs should be removed as an incentive to develop the home industry.
He said the group's pre-Budget submission would argue that the move would help develop the sector which already employed 10,000 people and was worth £160 million.
"It would be an incentive for Irish and, indeed, foreign groups to produce their CDs in Ireland.
"We feel that to introduce the measure would more than recoup the costs to the Exchequer," he said.
He added that while CDs had a 21 per cent VAT rate, books had a zero rate. The singer, Ms Eleanor McEvoy, who also spoke at the seminar, said performers had to be aware of the structure of the US music industry before getting involved with it.
Mr Alan McEvoy, a director of Artwest, which manages the Cranberries music group, advised musicians not to be complacent about the business side of their careers and to use the 1969 Artists' Exemption Scheme on tax.
