This below is from 8 or so year ago to Andy Burnham the then culture sec…..

Music, Art, Film and Fashion are key exports that help culturally define how Britain is perceived around the world. Financially according to NESTA’s analysis, it is suggested that the UK creative industries — which is responsible for films, music, fashion, TV and video games production — is responsible for revenues of £57 billion thats 5% of GDP and this figure despite the current world wide recession is set to grow to £87billion by 2013.

The Music video “industry” and its surrounding set of skills and techniques is a key cultural platform and breeding ground for training and showing off many creative talents. The Music Video was once purely a promotional tool for music sales, but it is now, due to new technologies and markets an increasingly fruitful quantifiable commodity. Although with the record industries having gone through turmoil and the historical position of the Music Videos creation, many highly talented people work well under market rate to create these films.

The current climate with record companies struggling to come to terms with new technologies and dwindling record sales has seen budgets decrease and therefore The Music Video Industry become less attractive to technical and directorial talent. From Stylist to Choreographers, from Camera Operators to Editors all have honed skills, tried techniques and furthered careers through the Music Video… .

The Music Videos status within the creative industries has always, due to its financial positioning and main stream youth based accessibility, been seen as the younger sibling of Commercials/Ads and Cinema/Film. If you look across many of our successful talents that have gone on into these arenas, they have brushed with the Music Video in some way on their way “up the ladder.” Production Companies however are struggling to continue to financially support their music video departments as they have done historically, which have been the best talent nurturing area for directors to go on into the more lucrative (maybe less creative) commercial sector. And if these directors are not working other skill sets are not being employed.

Record Companies are just beginning to realize the value of the Music Video as demand for the medium increases online and on mobile. The Music Video is becoming a commodity itself, and a new model for this industry needs to be written.

We would like to discuss possible areas of support for production companies to help keep nurturing/developing film making talent. To help creative royalty contracts to be written to incentivize creative talents. To create a body that both represents record company and creative suppliers needs.