BBC music industry virtual panel

The BBC have put together a virtual panel of music industry representatives to answer your questions on DRM, downloading, and any other topic you feel important. The music panel comprises:

• Brad Duea, president of Napster, once the scourge of the music industry and now one of the largest legal music download retailers.
• Peter Jamieson, executive chairman of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the UK music industry and has been leading the anti-piracy campaign in Britain.
• John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the trade body representing record labels worldwide, which has been instrumental in the global fight against piracy.
• Steve Knott, managing director of HMV UK & Ireland, a leading high street chain that has recently opened its own online download store.

They’ll be publishing the answers on 24 Jan, but I’m really not expecting to hear anything else other than the standard rhetoric that we’ve come to expect from an industry that feels threatened and defensive, but who don’t seem capable of imagining a world where music fans and the music industry can peacefully, profitably and fairly coexist.

What I find most interesting is the focus of the questions that the public are asking on the BBC website – primarily they are excellent questions about DRM and downloading. They are intelligent, incisive, and clearly indicate to the industry that their very own customers are fed up of being treated so badly.