BRIGHTON, UK (CelebrityAccess) — Speaking at the Vote For Music Keynote session at The Great Escape in Brighton, Martin Goldschmidt, Managing Director of the Cooking Vinyl Group called for a change to the current system of tax subsidies for music.
According to Goldschmidt, the tax subsidies for music end up in the hands of the financial service industry and private investors instead of music creators.
"The tax breaks that currently exist to help the music industry actually give the tax break to private investors. As exists for other creative industries, why not also have a scheme that gives the break directly to music?"
“Support would be best targeted as a tax break for recorded music production. Many of the tax breaks offered to film, video games, theatre and now orchestras were designed in part to mitigate the damage done by piracy and market failure. But what creative industry has been hit harder by online piracy than recorded music? Record companies have been hit hard, but recording studios and their workers have been hit hardest.
"This is about putting value back into the whole recording ecosystem of studios, session players and importantly, self-funding artists. Given music’s leading export value, the move would make clear economic sense. More importantly it makes cultural sense – as an industry, we've grown very risk-averse in terms of what gets signed, what gets played on the radio. Let's get help to fund more of culturally diverse, crazy, exciting stuff that so often gains wild popularity," Goldschmidt said. – Staff Writers
