New Report - Status Quo...?

Andrew Missingham.
Status Quo...?: An Exploration of the Status of Composers, Performers and Songwriters in the UK's Creative Economy.
The Musicians' Union, 2006, 780.905 MIS.

In October of this year RSA Fellow Andrew Missingham published a report commissioned by The Musicians' Union and The British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, examining the status of composers, performers and songwriters in the UK's creative economy.

The UK creating economy is growing quickly and obtaining an increasing significance in term of the UK's wider economic development and cultural landscape. In this report, Missingham suggests that the current 'status quo' is not capable of sustaining the great potential of the world creative economy in the 21st Century, and highlights the need for a new system that encourages the creation of intellectual property (IP).

The report discusses how recent developments within the creative industries in Britain have often focused on the exploitation of IP and questions the effect this is having on creative production. The RSA's recent project on intellectual property rights, the 'Adelphi Charter', constitutes a significant piece of research into the role of IP legislation and a template for a new approach that stimulates IP.

Andrew Missingham has worked for the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Paul McCartney's Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and in 2002 he founded the arts consultancy and 'think and do tank' , 'the hub'.

The report is available to borrow from the RSA library; alternatively the full text is available to download here.

Read a debate between Andrew Missingham and Piers Hellawell regarding the role of classical music in musical education, published in the New Statesman Magazine in October 2005.