馬蒂班迪爾 音樂老兵的背水一戰

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.

如果不是年輕時留着長髮，馬蒂•班迪爾(Marty Bandier)或許會和音樂發行生涯失之交臂。

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.

班迪爾現在是世界最大音樂發行集團索尼/ATV(Sony/ATV)的首席執行官。他回憶起自己當年從法學院畢業後在一家律師事務所找到工作的往事，當時是上世紀70年代前後，一名高級合夥人急於爲一家音樂公司找一名代理律師，他注意到年輕的班迪爾留着長髮。

“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，他走進我的辦公室，”班迪爾說，他的桌子上擺放着“貓王”埃爾維斯•普雷斯利(Elvis Presley)的小塑像（其中一個表現的正是他演唱“Suspicious Minds”時的微縮場景）和其他音樂紀念品，“他完全不看我的眼睛，只看着我的頭髮。他說‘我們認爲你是負責這個項目的最佳人選’。”

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.”

長髮或許表明這名年輕的紐約人是個潛在的音樂迷，讓他得以脫穎而出，但班迪爾承認，當時的他在音樂發行相關法律和許可方面還是個新手，“我根本不知道那都是怎麼一回事。”

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.

今天的情況就完全不同了。班迪爾服務的這第一位客戶促使他走上了長達40年的音樂發行生涯。1975年他離開了法律行業，與房地產開發商塞繆爾•勒弗拉克(Samuel LeFrak)和音樂公司高管查爾斯•科佩爾曼(Charles Koppelman)共同創辦了一家唱片和音樂發行公司，旗下藝人包括芭芭拉•史翠珊(Barbra Streisand)和黛安娜•羅斯(Diana Ross)。這正是班迪爾音樂人生的開端，其中他曾在逾17年的時間裏負責管理百代音樂版權公司(EMI Music Publishing)，後來又執掌索尼和邁克爾•傑克遜(Michael Jackson)的合資公司索尼/ATV。2007年他成爲了索尼/ATV公司的首席執行官。

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.

照片上的班迪爾總是帶着燦爛的微笑，手夾一隻大號雪茄。3年前，由索尼牽頭的財團以22億美元的價格收購了百代音樂版權公司，班迪爾也就此與該公司再度攜手。這起收購讓班迪爾全面負責從摩城唱片(Motown)歌曲庫，披頭士(The Beatles)、鮑勃•迪倫(Bob Dylan)、泰勒•斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)和Lady Gaga等藝人的熱門單曲，到《雨中曲》(Singin’ in the Rain)等音樂劇，總共有300萬首歌曲。“我能哼唱所有的歌曲，”班迪爾笑着說。

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”.

在班迪爾的職業生涯中，從CD銷售的激增，到數字盜版的出現，再到下載時代的到來，這個行業已經發生了巨大的變化。但直到近幾年，他纔不得不努力應對他所說的“我人生中的最大挑戰”。

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.

音樂行業幾度變遷，從銷售實體產品——CD唱片——到音樂下載再到在線流媒體，讓音樂發行人疲以應對。過去10年來CD的銷量大幅下滑，過去18個月音樂的下載量也下降了，其中在2014年的降幅就超過了10%，Spotify等數字流媒體和服務則越來越流行。

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.

詞曲創作人從一首在線播放的歌曲中獲得的版稅要遠低於他們通過CD或者下載方式賣出一首歌獲得的酬金。“在美國，作詞的人從流媒體中賺得的酬金微乎其微，”班迪爾說。

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.

他舉了互動電臺服務Pandora作爲例子，Pandora將近一半收入支付給演唱歌曲的藝人，但只將4%的收入支付給美國作曲家作家和發行商協會(ASCAP)和BMI，這兩個組織代表音樂發行商和詞曲作家收取版稅。

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.”

他說，由索尼/ATV發行的法瑞爾•威廉姆斯(Pharrell Williams)演唱的2014年最暢銷單曲《幸福》(Happy)就是一個很好的例子。2014年上半年，這首歌在Pandora上播放了1.05億次，但詞曲創作人和發行商只能分享6300美元的版稅。“這很荒謬。現在的挑戰是如何爲我們的詞曲創作人爭取公平的工作酬勞。我們理應得到更好的回報。”

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.

數字音頻流媒體服務的版權使用費是強制性的，由一位美國聯邦法官設定。蘋果最近新推出的流媒體服務蘋果音樂(Apple Music)增添了新的特色，比如包含視頻內容，這意味着索尼/ATV能夠自行協商版權使用費。

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.

班迪爾還在爭取提高與其他流媒體服務協商版權使用費的能力，但在目前的制度下，索尼/ATV要想這樣做就必須先退出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.

班迪爾此前曾說過執行“核選項”的事情，這牽涉到不再依靠ASCAP和BMI來收取索尼/ATV旗下歌曲的版稅，轉而與數字音樂服務商一一協調。數十年來這兩個組織一直代表音樂發行商收取版稅。如果索尼/ATV終止在這兩個組織的會員身份，就必須負責爲客戶收取播放或者演唱的歌曲的版稅。這將是一項艱鉅的任務，其中可能包括從美國的成千上萬家酒吧和餐廳收取版權使用費。

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.”

這樣的做法將是最後手段。不過，他對美國司法部針對ASCAP和BMI運營方式的一項審查滿懷希望，認爲該項審查將給予音樂發行商更多自行協商版權使用費的自由。“新的數字服務支付更多費用的空間還很大。我們希望它們存活下去，我們還希望我們的300萬首歌曲也在它們的平臺上。”

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.

這其中包括Spotify。目前Spotify已成爲流媒體方面的市場領袖，擁有1500萬付費訂閱用戶，還有4500萬使用其免費服務的用戶。Spotify利用免費服務，吸引潛在用戶轉爲訂閱用戶，但許多音樂行業人士並不喜歡Spotify，其中泰勒•斯威夫特去年還突然撤下了其在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.

班迪爾也是其中一員。“我能理解泰勒的想法，”他說，並補充道：“4500萬人在聽我們的詞曲創作人的作品，但他們卻沒有爲此付費。如果你生產了6000萬條領帶，卻把其中4500萬條免費送給別人，你幾天內就會破產。”他建議給免費服務設置幾個月的時限。

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.”

班迪爾稱，音樂有持久的價值。他提及維多利亞的祕密(Victoria's Secret)內衣連鎖店的一個廣告取得了使用索尼/ATV發行的歌曲《I’m in the Mood for Love》的許可，“當我們坐在這裏的時候，一家廣告公司的另一名天才正想出一個在廣告中使用我們的歌曲的想法。”

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樣，2014年底索尼影視娛樂(Sony Pictures Entertainment)遭網絡攻擊的事件也讓索尼/ATV受到了震動。在黑客公開的郵件中，有一封來自一名索尼高管，討論要出售索尼/ATV。“這家公司不會出售，”班迪爾加重語氣，“我已經得到了明確的保證。”

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.”

除了爲爭取更好的版權使用費而苦惱以外，這名精明的音樂人對未來抱着樂觀的態度。他說，公司剛剛度過了“在創意和收入方面最好的一年”。在今年的格萊美(Grammy)獎上，年度最佳唱片和最佳歌曲的五項提名中都有索尼/ATV的詞曲創作人，他本人也在這一次格萊美獎上榮獲“主席榮譽獎”(President’s Merit Award)。“我們過去從未經歷過絕不能輸的處境。”

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.”

班迪爾說，熱門歌曲將永遠存活下去，經受住時間考驗的歌曲將年復一年帶來收入。“我總是告訴人們，我們做的是聚沙成塔的生意。我們像撿麪包屑一樣把點點滴滴收集起來，當你把它們都捲起來，你就會有一整塊麪包。”