‘Music is Okay?!’: Interview with Oke Göttlich from Finetunes

Our new event series checkdisout for PSFK readers in Germany takes place next Week, November 20 in Hamburg. Tickets for the premiere ‘Music is Okay?!‘ are almost sold out, so be quick if you want to be part of an insightful evening about digital music culture.

In this second interview in our series with the panelists we spoke with Oke Göttlich, General Manager at Finetunes. We recently wrote about Finetunes’ legal move against Last.fm’s un-licensed usage of various artists in Finetunes roster.

For more than four years, finetunes has been a pioneer in creating opportunities for independent labels in the digital music markets. Initially focused on providing digital solutions for the German independent labels, the Hamburg-based company now represents more than 1,000 record labels from around the world and has a network of satellite offices in London, Paris, Montreal, Tokyo and Barcelona.

Oke, when we invited panelists for checkdisout, we asked everyone for a quote. Yours was: “Music is okay, as long as it sounds good and somebody is paying the work of the artists.” Could you explain a bit more?

The vast majority used in the internet is for free. This is nice for the consumers and the reason for the fact that we never had more usage of music then today. But: If we want to keep quality and creativity alive, we as consumers/lovers/customers need to find ways of using music wherever the quality and service is top-notch and we are able to secure the artists to make a living from what service they are offering us: enjoyable times!

It seems the music industry is still mourning over sales numbers and the demise of the industry. What opportunities to innovate, build new products and concepts in this field do you see?

Break down the walls of burocracy and formalism! In Germany we are facing strange rules regarding usage of music in the internet. We need to define proper and pragmatic laws and monetisation models which enable everyone to use/share/listen the music he/she loves – in a legal surrounding. Lets take the good moments of all illegal sources and lets try to make them legal.

What are the most interesting concepts and products in the field of digital music from your perspective at the moment?

Connecting discovery/listening and purchasing of music. This impulse is needed as a good and proper introduction to the flood of music which is released week by week. Maybe a push option of certain services would be a nice gimmick.

Some last words to the Majors?

Make the best out of your money – as long as you are able to earn it!

Thanks, Oke!