One of UKPA’s major achievements was to put podcasting on the wider stage, establishing podcasting as a high quality option for media producers in radio, television, print and online, competing directly with established media for audiences.

During this disintermediated revolution, millions of people turned away from mainstream media formats and began to create and share in unprecedented ways. As new opportunities emerged, so did legislation. The UKPA’s chair and trustees decided it made good sense for podcasters and media makers to join forces with other podcasting groups and like-minded organisations to ensure that the rights of the many were not sidelined by panicking old media, vested interests and the paid political lobby.

The UKPA was closely allied with the Open Rights Group, aka ORG, and the EFF in its campaigns for podcasting. When the UKPA ended, members were welcomed by ORG.

The UKPA is now closed to new members and renewals, it formally ceased operations as of 22nd August 2009, and was dissolved January 2010.

Neil Fairbrother Chairman UKPA

It’s with some trepidation that I write this blog, the first as Chairman of the UKPA; Dean’s been such a giant, bestriding the podcast community, a fantastic representative for us all, fending off foes and gaining support from allies in the worlds of Heritage Media as well as New Media…

…a tough act to follow.

So… what are we going to do next, then?

Creating content is the fun bit of what we do. It’s easy. Enjoyable, a blast. If it isn’t… what are you doing?

Creating, maintaining and increasing an audience is harder, as the democratisation and disintermediation of the internet increases choice, fragments audience sizes, it gets harder and harder to be found and heard, or watched.

Monetising podcasts, if that’s what you want to do, is harder still. Partly because of the audience issue, but also other factors such as how to measure the ROI for advertisers, many of whom are still stuck with Heritage Media mindsets. Another issue for advertisers is quality – how to ensure that, as anyone can podcast, the brand values of their company is maintained and enhanced by associating with podcasters. Yet another issue is what monetisation method to use? Spot ads? Paid for content? White label podcasting? Sponsorship? Product placement? Pre-roll, post-roll?

Even harder than all of that is protecting this new media from the old guard. For sure, some such as the BBC are using the same platforms to publish some of their content as we do, which of course helps build the market for us all. But there are dark forces as work, such as WIPO, which has raised it’s ugly head again and which once again threatens us. Ofcom is waiting in the wings to sweep us up in to their regulatory framework which on one side of the argument makes sense, but equally can rob us of competitive advantage on what is a very unequal playing field.

I don’t know what you’d like from the UKPA, what you’d like to see us doing or where you’d like us to spend our time. But it seems to me that whatever it is, the more of us there are, then the louder our voice will be; the more weight and authority we’ll carry, and the more we’ll be able to achieve.

So let me know – it’s the first week for me and I’d like to hear your views – you can contact by email neil@ukpa.info. And if you get a gentle reminder to renew you membership… then please rejoin and help make UK Podcasting the force it can be.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=N7+8PR&spn=0.005,0.02&hl=en

It’s a pub called the Duchess of Kent. It’s 2 mins from Highbury and Islington tube, which itself is 10 mins from Oxford Circus on the Victoria Line.

The meeting is sheduled to run from 2pm to 5pm.

If you would like to be considered for the role of either Chairman or Treasurer, please contact us by the 18th November via email, or call 0870 919 2807 in office hours.

In the UK, podcasters are well-behaved and very few use music without permission – they tend to stick to using “podsafe” music, often approaching artists and labels directly, so given the fact that most podcasters would like to evangelise music by artists they know and love, it has been one of the UKPA’s central tasks to remedy this situation.

The majority of podcasts are made at the grassroots level in the UK, but until now none of them have been able to use music within the MCPS-PRS repertoire without running into red tape, production restrictions and fees beyond their means, so the license take up to date has not been high.

This new license is important, since applying reasonable royalty rates and removing restrictions on track length encourages the commercial production of content made specifically for the internet, rather than just (as many radio stations do currently) repurposing existing music programming for podcast with the music edited out. The license allows the use of full length music tracks in internet music programmes.

The low-cost start point for this license also potentially brings in the thousands of individual UK podcasters – the “weekend warriors” who cater for multiple niches – and the high-end rates encourage entrepreneurs.

Whilst the major labels still work out their various positions on podcasting, many individual songwriters, artists and labels get the point of podcasting, and see it as a welcome addition to their marketing. AIM took the lead early on and introduced a label opt-in podcast licensing scheme which gives access to their large catalogue – acts including the White Stripes, The Killers, Paul Weller, Bjork.

The Alliance has now provided the missing piece of the puzzle, and we in the UK have a straightforward route to fully legal, full-length track music podcasting – an international first, something of which we should be proud, and something which our friends across the pond would dearly love to have. Individuals, production companies, and broadcast corporations with mass audiences can begin to really use the internet for its benefits.

In an era of fragmenting music revenue, we think that this is a huge opportunity to add a small army of passionate, knowledgable, skillful and (astonishingly) almost entirely *unpaid* music promoters, and we call on more labels to take advantage of this excellent initiative, which in an era of “free” music, potentially returns real value to songwriters and publishers.

The consultation focuses on three specific issues which are expected to require legislation. These are ‘co-regulating’ video-on-demand services; product placement; and, regulating satellite TV channels from outside the EU which uplink from the UK.

This EU Directive is aimed at On-Demand Audio-Visual Media Services – and so it is very likely to impact upon video and audio podcasting. It is important that the UKPA members are not negatively impacted.

Leave your comments here, or email yours [at] ukpodcasters [dot] org [dot] uk

Also see James Cridland’s notes on the sessions.

Guardian Session 2: Music and Podcasting

Becky Hogge and Matt Wells (heads of ORG and Guardian Audio respectively) will be there, as well as representatives from MCPS-PRS and AIM (Association of Independent Music).

ORG will discuss how the EU AVMS Directive could impact negatively upon podcasting (if we let it) and generally explain the current issues facing podcasters as they see them. In the second session, we’ll cover new developments in music and podcasting.

There will be an opportunity afterwards to eat, drink and socialise at a local pub.

Attendance is strictly limited to 50, and places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Sorry but due to security, no tickets are available “on the door” – all places must be booked in advance by March 22nd 2008.

This event is free to UKPA and ORG members.

Please book early to secure your place.

VENUE ADDRESS:

The Scott Room, 60 Faringdon Road, EC1R 3GA – directly opposite 119 Farringdon Road (main Guardian building)
Reception: 020 7886 9890

UKPA Contact number: 0870 919 2807

UKPA Event Email: events [at] ukpa [dot] info

Hope to see you there.

Basic membership: Free

Full membership: £3 pcm, £36 per year

Corporate 1 (turnover up to £100,000 p.a.): £120 per year

Corporate 2 (turnover over £100,000 p.a.): £250 per year

The new Corporate 2 tier has been arrived at in discussion with members and prospective members because of the growing number of larger companies now joining the UKPA.

NB: Joining at this level does not confer any more rights – it’s still one membership, one vote – but it does give the non-profit organisation more resources to look out for its members’ interests.

All of the work members do for UKPA is unpaid and voluntary.

UKPA member Lloyd Davis discusses what it is and how he hopes it will work in the UKPA podcast.

As a new organisation, we needed all the help we could get, and ORG gave it. Their intelligence enabled us to go into high-level meetings confidently, fully aware of our rights, and with developed strategies. Since then we have worked with ORG and the EFF to keep podcasting free from bad legislation and heavy-handed regulation.

As ORG celebrates its second birthday, please consider joining, or donating.

Head of audio Matt Wells said:

“We are now a significant force in quality speech programming, with hundreds of thousands of downloads a week. For the first time, the BBC has a serious rival in this area. It makes sense to have a seat at the top table at the leading radio industry organisation, and also to be a major player in the only body that represents podcast producers in the UK.”

The Guardian’s audio department produces Football Weekly, one of the popular football podcasts in the UK; a daily news show, Newsdesk; Media Talk and other specialist weekly shows, and the award-winning Muslim podcast Islamophonic.

Dean Whitbread, Chair of UKPA, said:

“UKPA is pleased that Guardian Unlimited has joined our organisation, the first major publisher to do so.

With a strong tradition of liberality and independence, Guardian Unlimited considerably adds to our presence and gravitas in the online media rights space. We now represent a truly diverse grouping of professional individuals, companies and media corporations, as well as passionate, unpaid enthusiasts, and our strength is our ability to speak up for all those involved in online media.

Our key roles remain to promote and protect the UK community’s interests across
the fascinating and dynamic emerging online media landscape.”

The move by GCap Media, who produce more podcasts than any other media company in the UK, is recognition of the role podcasts are playing in the modern media landscape.

Speaking about GCap Media joining the UKPA, Chairman Dean Whitbread said:

“This is a major endorsement of the UKPA’s work and status as the leading body to establish podcasters’ rights. The UKPA represents its members’ interests to regulators and would-be legislators. We’ve done a lot of work to establish podcasting as a medium in itself and we are really pleased to welcome GCap as a prominent member from the radio industry. It shows that they recognise both the value of the Association and the importance of podcasting. This can only be good for all.”

John Hirst, Head of GCap’s podcasting company, Creation, said:

“Over the past three years we have seen millions of consumers subscribing and downloading compelling podcasts from our radio stations and our customers’ websites. We create podcasts for our radio brands, our commercial clients and other third party customers, such as The Sun. It’s now part of our core business and content offering to consumers and commercial customers alike. We are delighted to join the UKPA as it’s a neutral body set-up to support all podcasters.”

Description: The founding principle of this cause is that podcasting, and the freedom to put your own unedited voice online, so long as it isn’t breaking the laws of the land, should be available to all, and is not a licensable commodity.

There is still a lot of confusion in the online rights space with regard to podcasting. UK Podcasters Association has attempted to make more sense of the situation by building and maintaining active links with the licensing bodies, entering into dialogue with UK government and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and joining with other groups like the EFF internationally to bring about recognition of our basic rights and to resist bad legislation in podcasting.

Why podcasting? Because in many ways, within social media, podcasting is the closest in form to old media, and as such it is likely that lawmakers will seek to bring it under their jurisdiction. How this is done matters – we want to make sure that as business comes into the space, ordinary people can still pick up a recording device, say what they want into it, make a radio or TV-format show (or any recording) of their own devising, and put it online.

Podcasting is for all, and we’d like to keep it that way.

Positions:

• Keep podcasting free, requiring no license from government or other statutory body;
• Establish podcasting as a universal right of citizens everywhere

The above text is in Facebook where if you use that social network – and we advise caution with using Facebook – you might also join the cause. Any donations go towards the UKPA to help us in our non-profit work, or in Facebook, to the EFF who helped us and podcasters everywhere resist bad legislation from WIPO.

“Your right to podcast your own voice speaking your own words cannot be licensed, and should be a freedom for all in perpetuity” – UKPA Founding statement, March 2006.

The UK Podcasters Association was formed as a result of a badly phrased press release from MCPS-PRS (the UK Performing Rights Organisations who control music licensing and revenue distribution on behalf of recording companies, publishers, writers and artists) which implied they were about to licence speech-only podcasts.

UK podcasters answered this by forming a non-profit association, which produced this first articulation of podcasters’ inalienable rights.

Since then we’ve attempted to make more sense of the situation by building and maintaining active links with the licensing bodies, entering into dialogue with UK government, and joining with other groups internationally to bring about recognition of our basic rights.

Since April 2007 new members have been joining at around three per week, many of them also belonging to other associations and unions – NUJ, BECTU, Musicians Union, Radio Academy.

Today, at the last minute, the Chairman decided that so many countries had raised so many different objections, that a diplomatic convention on the Treaty is now to be scheduled in December 2008 – effectively kicking any resolution as far as possible into the long grass and giving time for the restructuring which is clearly necessary if ever consensus is to be reached.

UKPA members and associates once again lobbied hard for this victory for common sense and podcasting.

Please help the cause by signing the petition – it takes virtually no time at all. Beyond that, please write to your MPs. This tactic was really effective in last year’s campaign, especially when you ask your MP to pass on your concerns to the relevant minister.

This campaign is led by the EFF’s excellent Gwen Hinze. She says

“The exceptions are far worse than this time last year – there’s no mention of podcasting, webcasting or netcasting, but broadcasters and cablecasters will get the right to control internet retransmission of anything broadcast or cablecast. Therefore, podcasters won’t receive any rights under the treaty (only traditional broadcasters and cablecasters will), but podcasters are likely to be detrimentally affected by the treaty for a number of reasons. Put simply, from podcasters’ point of view, we are in the same place we were last year, but there’s an even stronger push to try to get the treaty through. If the current treaty draft is accepted by WIPO Member Countries next week, it moves to the next treaty stage – an intergovernmental Diplomatic Conference now scheduled in November.

Since we were so successful at turning around this ship last year with the help of you and your fellow podcasters, we’d like to deliver the same message to WIPO next week: Don’t Break Citizen Broadcasting on the Internet! We have put together a Dear WIPO Petition and would like to ask for your help in getting the word out to podcasters and podcasting organizations to sign on.”

UKPA’s Dean Whitbread says,

“UK podcasts are among the best in the world, enjoying a huge international audience. As well as being a dynamic part of the new digital economy, Podcasting is an important social freedom which empowers citizens, breaks down existing barriers to technology, and adds great richness to our culture.

This inappropriate WIPO legislation is dangerous, and must not be allowed to pass into national law as it stands, or we risk seeing a vibrant industry saddled with restrictions and our individual rights handed wholesale to corporate broadcasters.”

Here’s the petition and more info: http://dearwipo.com/info

Gwen will be at WIPO to deliver it in person there next week.

Here’s the EFF’s background on the Broadcasting Treaty and why it is bad for the internet.

Here’s the latest treaty draft (the Chair’s “non-paper”): http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/sccr/en/sccr_s2/sccr_s2_paper1.pdf

WRITE TO YOUR MP – remember to write the letter in your own words, explaining how much podcasting is valuable and why the Treaty is a serious threat to what we do. Ask your MP to bring this to the attention of Malcolm Wicks, MP, the UK Science Minister.

With this in mind, we’ve started a Facebook group which members are free to join.

We’re starting to get some good press for the AIM agreement which gives UKPA members a preferential rate on their podcast licence. The AIM licence gives access to a 30,000 track archive. Full length no-DRM tracks, for podcasters to use in their music podcasts.

Radio stations typically remove music from their podcasts. This gives UK Podcasters a unique opportunity to re-write the rules for music promotion, opening the door for podcasters to move legitimately into traditional broadcast territory, which will hasten the shift towards media on demand.

The AIM podcast licence covers tracks licensed by the UK independent music industry and includes labels such as V2, XL Recordings, Studio !K7, Cooking Vinyl and Beggars Group. Revenue from the scheme returns to the labels, and artists will be paid as a result of podcasters using their music and paying the licence fee.

If you are a member and you want to get the reduction, contact aimpodcast ->at<- ukpa.info and quote your membership number. If you are not a member, join.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UKPAPodcast

“UKPA members are making all the running in UK new media, playing key roles in exciting and progressive projects. In business our members are making enormous headway, and we continue to grow as an organisation, both in terms of numbers and stature,” said UKPA Chairman Dean Whitbread.

Dean Whitbread is speaking at this BECTU / BT sponsored Event Monday April 16th.