马蒂班迪尔 音乐老兵的背水一战

Were it not for the long hair he wore in his youth Marty Bandier might have missed out on a car¬eer in music publishing.

如果不是年轻时留着长发，马蒂•班迪尔(Marty Bandier)或许会和音乐发行生涯失之交臂。

Now chief executive of Sony/ATV, the world’s largest music publishing group, he recalls how he landed a job at a legal firm after graduating from law school. It was around 1970 and a senior partner, anxious to find a lawyer who could represent a music com¬pany, noticed the young Bandier had long hair.

班迪尔现在是世界最大音乐发行集团索尼/ATV(Sony/ATV)的首席执行官。他回忆起自己当年从法学院毕业后在一家律师事务所找到工作的往事，当时是上世纪70年代前后，一名高级合伙人急于为一家音乐公司找一名代理律师，他注意到年轻的班迪尔留着长发。

“He came into my office one day,” says Mr Bandier from behind a desk decorated with figurines of Elvis Presley (one plays a tinny version of “Suspicious Minds”) and other music memorabilia. “He never looked at my eyes, only my hair. He said: ‘We think you’d be perfect to work on this project.’”

“一天，他走进我的办公室，”班迪尔说，他的桌子上摆放着“猫王”埃尔维斯•普雷斯利(Elvis Presley)的小塑像（其中一个表现的正是他演唱“Suspicious Minds”时的微缩场景）和其他音乐纪念品，“他完全不看我的眼睛，只看着我的头发。他说‘我们认为你是负责这个项目的最佳人选’。”

The hair may have marked the young New Yorker out as a potential music fan, but Mr Bandier admits he was a novice when it came to its publishing law and licensing. “I had no clue what it was all about.”

长发或许表明这名年轻的纽约人是个潜在的音乐迷，让他得以脱颖而出，但班迪尔承认，当时的他在音乐发行相关法律和许可方面还是个新手，“我根本不知道那都是怎么一回事。”

That is not the case today. That first client led to a career in music publishing that has lasted four decades. He left his legal career behind in 1975 when he start¬ed a recording and publishing group with Samuel LeFrak, the property developer, and Charles Koppelman, a music executive, representing artists such as Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. It was the start of a journey that would include more than 17 years running EMI Music Publishing and take him to the top of Sony/ATV, a joint venture bet¬ween Sony and the Michael Jackson estate. He became CEO in 2007.

今天的情况就完全不同了。班迪尔服务的这第一位客户促使他走上了长达40年的音乐发行生涯。1975年他离开了法律行业，与房地产开发商塞缪尔•勒弗拉克(Samuel LeFrak)和音乐公司高管查尔斯•科佩尔曼(Charles Koppelman)共同创办了一家唱片和音乐发行公司，旗下艺人包括芭芭拉•史翠珊(Barbra Streisand)和黛安娜•罗斯(Diana Ross)。这正是班迪尔音乐人生的开端，其中他曾在逾17年的时间里负责管理百代音乐版权公司(EMI Music Publishing)，后来又执掌索尼和迈克尔•杰克逊(Michael Jackson)的合资公司索尼/ATV。2007年他成为了索尼/ATV公司的首席执行官。

Rarely photographed without a beaming smile and a big cigar, Mr Bandier was reunited with EMI Music Publishing three years ago when a Sony-led consortiumacquired it for $2.2bn. The deal gave him overall responsibility for 3m songs ranging from the Motown cata¬logue to hits by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, and musicals, such as Singin’ in the Rain. “I can hum them all,” he laughs.

照片上的班迪尔总是带着灿烂的微笑，手夹一只大号雪茄。3年前，由索尼牵头的财团以22亿美元的价格收购了百代音乐版权公司，班迪尔也就此与该公司再度携手。这起收购让班迪尔全面负责从摩城唱片(Motown)歌曲库，披头士(The Beatles)、鲍勃•迪伦(Bob Dylan)、泰勒•斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)和Lady Gaga等艺人的热门单曲，到《雨中曲》(Singin’ in the Rain)等音乐剧，总共有300万首歌曲。“我能哼唱所有的歌曲，”班迪尔笑着说。

From the explosion of CD sales to digital piracy and the advent of downloads, much has changed in the industry over the course of his career. But it is in recent years that he has had to grapple with what he calls “the biggest challenge of my life”.

在班迪尔的职业生涯中，从CD销售的激增，到数字盗版的出现，再到下载时代的到来，这个行业已经发生了巨大的变化。但直到近几年，他才不得不努力应对他所说的“我人生中的最大挑战”。

The industry’s evolution from the sale of physical goods — CDs — to downloads and now to online streaming has been tough for publishers to navigate. Sales of CDs have fallen sharply over the past dec¬ade and in the past 18 months downloads have also slipped, falling more than 10 per cent in 2014, as digital streaming and services such as Spotify have grown in popularity.

音乐行业几度变迁，从销售实体产品——CD唱片——到音乐下载再到在线流媒体，让音乐发行人疲以应对。过去10年来CD的销量大幅下滑，过去18个月音乐的下载量也下降了，其中在2014年的降幅就超过了10%，Spotify等数字流媒体和服务则越来越流行。

The performance royalty that songwriters and composers receive for a streamed track is much lower than the fee they would receive for a piece of music sold on CD or via download. “Here in America, the amount of money that songwriters make from streaming is minuscule,” says Mr Bandier.

词曲创作人从一首在线播放的歌曲中获得的版税要远低于他们通过CD或者下载方式卖出一首歌获得的酬金。“在美国，作词的人从流媒体中赚得的酬金微乎其微，”班迪尔说。

He points to interactive radio services such as Pandora, which pays out almost half its revenue to the artists that perform tracks but only about 4 per cent to Ascap and BMI, the two organisations that collect royalties on behalf of music publishers and songwriters.

他举了互动电台服务Pandora作为例子，Pandora将近一半收入支付给演唱歌曲的艺人，但只将4%的收入支付给美国作曲家作家和发行商协会(ASCAP)和BMI，这两个组织代表音乐发行商和词曲作家收取版税。

Pharrell Williams’s “Happy”, the biggest selling song of 2014 — and published by Sony/ATV — is a case in point, he says. The track was played 105m times on Pandora in the first half of 2014 but generated royalties of only $6,300 to be shared between songwriter and publisher. “It’s ab¬surd. The challenge is to get our songwriters fair rates for their work. We deserve a better deal.”

他说，由索尼/ATV发行的法瑞尔•威廉姆斯(Pharrell Williams)演唱的2014年最畅销单曲《幸福》(Happy)就是一个很好的例子。2014年上半年，这首歌在Pandora上播放了1.05亿次，但词曲创作人和发行商只能分享6300美元的版税。“这很荒谬。现在的挑战是如何为我们的词曲创作人争取公平的工作酬劳。我们理应得到更好的回报。”

Performance royalty rates for audio- digital streaming services are compulsory and set by a US federal judge. Apple Music, the new streaming service Apple unveiled last Monday, has extra features, such as the inclusion of video elements, which meant Sony/ATV was able to negotiate its own rates.

数字音频流媒体服务的版权使用费是强制性的，由一位美国联邦法官设定。苹果最近新推出的流媒体服务苹果音乐(Apple Music)增添了新的特色，比如包含视频内容，这意味着索尼/ATV能够自行协商版权使用费。

Mr Bandier is pushing for the ability to negotiate royalty rates with other streaming services too, but, under the current system, Sony/ATV would have to resign its memberships of Ascap and BMI before it could do so.

班迪尔还在争取提高与其他流媒体服务协商版权使用费的能力，但在目前的制度下，索尼/ATV要想这样做就必须先退出ASCAP和BMI。

He has spoken before about exercising the “nuclear option”, which would entail removing Sony/ATV’s songs from royalty collection by Ascap and BMI and instead negotiating individual rates with digital music services. Ascap and BMI have collected royalties on behalf of music publishers for decades. If Sony/ATV were to end its membership of the two organisations it would become responsible for collecting royalties for clients from music wherever songs were played or performed. This would be a huge undertaking and involve collecting royalties from, say, the many thousands of bars and restaurants in America.

班迪尔此前曾说过执行“核选项”的事情，这牵涉到不再依靠ASCAP和BMI来收取索尼/ATV旗下歌曲的版税，转而与数字音乐服务商一一协调。数十年来这两个组织一直代表音乐发行商收取版税。如果索尼/ATV终止在这两个组织的会员身份，就必须负责为客户收取播放或者演唱的歌曲的版税。这将是一项艰巨的任务，其中可能包括从美国的成千上万家酒吧和餐厅收取版权使用费。

Such a move would be a last resort. Instead, he is hopeful that a US justice department review into how Ascap and BMI operate will give publishers more leeway to negotiate their own royalty rates. “There’s plenty of room for new digital services to be able to pay more money. We want them to exist and we want our 3m songs to be on them.”

这样的做法将是最后手段。不过，他对美国司法部针对ASCAP和BMI运营方式的一项审查满怀希望，认为该项审查将给予音乐发行商更多自行协商版权使用费的自由。“新的数字服务支付更多费用的空间还很大。我们希望它们存活下去，我们还希望我们的300万首歌曲也在它们的平台上。”

That includes Spotify, which has bec¬ome market leader in streaming, with 15m paying subscribers and 45m people using its free service. Spotify uses the free service to draw potential customers to its subscription service but many in the music industry — including Taylor Swift, who yanked her catalogue from the service last year — do not like it.

这其中包括Spotify。目前Spotify已成为流媒体方面的市场领袖，拥有1500万付费订阅用户，还有4500万使用其免费服务的用户。Spotify利用免费服务，吸引潜在用户转为订阅用户，但许多音乐行业人士并不喜欢Spotify，其中泰勒•斯威夫特去年还突然撤下了其在Spotify上的所有歌曲。

Mr Bandier is among them. “I can un¬derstand Taylor’s view,” he says, adding that “45m people are listening to our songwriters’ work and they’re not being paid for it. If you made neckties and had 60m but gave 45m away for free you would be out of business in a few days.” He suggests limiting the free service to a few months.

班迪尔也是其中一员。“我能理解泰勒的想法，”他说，并补充道：“4500万人在听我们的词曲创作人的作品，但他们却没有为此付费。如果你生产了6000万条领带，却把其中4500万条免费送给别人，你几天内就会破产。”他建议给免费服务设置几个月的时限。

Music has enduring value, he says. He mentions a commercial for the Victoria’s Secret underwear chain that lic¬ensed “I’m in the Mood for Love”, which is published by Sony/ATV. “While we’re sitting here another genius in an advertising agency is coming up with an idea to use one of our songs in a campaign.”

班迪尔称，音乐有持久的价值。他提及维多利亚的秘密(Victoria's Secret)内衣连锁店的一个广告取得了使用索尼/ATV发行的歌曲《I’m in the Mood for Love》的许可，“当我们坐在这里的时候，一家广告公司的另一名天才正想出一个在广告中使用我们的歌曲的想法。”

Sony/ATV, like other parts of Sony, was rocked by the cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment at the end of 2014. Among the emails released by hackers was one from a senior Sony executive that discussed selling Sony/ ATV. “It’s not for sale,” says Mr Bandier, emphatically. “I’ve been assured of that.”

就像索尼旗下的其他公司那样，2014年底索尼影视娱乐(Sony Pictures Entertainment)遭网络攻击的事件也让索尼/ATV受到了震动。在黑客公开的邮件中，有一封来自一名索尼高管，讨论要出售索尼/ATV。“这家公司不会出售，”班迪尔加重语气，“我已经得到了明确的保证。”

Despite the distractions of trying to secure better royalty rates, the consummate music man is upbeat about the future. The company has just had its “best year creatively and financially”, he says. At this year’s Grammy awards — where he received the President’s Merit Award — the Sony/ATV songwriters were represented in each of the five nominations for record of the year and song of the year. “We never had a situation before where we couldn’t lose.”

除了为争取更好的版权使用费而苦恼以外，这名精明的音乐人对未来抱着乐观的态度。他说，公司刚刚度过了“在创意和收入方面最好的一年”。在今年的格莱美(Grammy)奖上，年度最佳唱片和最佳歌曲的五项提名中都有索尼/ATV的词曲创作人，他本人也在这一次格莱美奖上荣获“主席荣誉奖”(President’s Merit Award)。“我们过去从未经历过绝不能输的处境。”

Hits, he says, can last for ever and songs that stand the test of time can generate income year after year. “I always tell people we’re in a penny business. We pick up bits and pieces like breadcrumbs and when you roll them all together you have a loaf.”

班迪尔说，热门歌曲将永远存活下去，经受住时间考验的歌曲将年复一年带来收入。“我总是告诉人们，我们做的是聚沙成塔的生意。我们像捡面包屑一样把点点滴滴收集起来，当你把它们都卷起来，你就会有一整块面包。”