Alex Duval Smith in Bourges
Musicians from Sting to Sir Yehudi Menuhin are backing a campaign by French culture minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to reduce value-added tax (Vat) on recorded music across the European Union.
This town in central France hosts one of Europe’s biggest music festivals every spring and Douste- Blazy chose a conference here last week to argue that recorded music is as much of a creative work as books, which in Britain are zero-rated for Vat.
He said: ”It is absurd to deny that recorded music is a cultural product. Making a record is a work of art. Listening to one is a cultural experience. The fact that young people are particularly interested in it should make us take it even more seriously.”
The minister’s campaign is backed by Europe’s 19,5- billion-a-year music industry but is likely to face opposition from member states who believe taxation is a sovereign issue.
Adrian Strain, representative for the Brussels office of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said: ”We would like recorded music to be included on Annex H. This is an EU list of products and services, already including films, circuses and books, for which individual states may apply reduced Vat rates if they wish.”
Matthew Rooke of the Scottish Arts Council said: ”The campaign makes perfect sense. In Britain, if you buy a recording of Cats you pay 17,5% Vat. If you buy the T S Eliot book, you pay no Vat. It is just not logical.”
Eamon Shackleton, director of the Irish performing rights society, Imro, said links with continental culture policy had brought only benefits — with the exception of the Eurovision Song Contest which Ireland has the costly habit of winning.
He said: ”After a period of isolation, the Irish government has become pro-active. Our film industry is booming thanks to a scheme of tax breaks. Our recording industry, I am sure, would grow if records became cheaper because people would buy more of them.”
Douste-Blazy, who for the day had enlisted the support of the Greek singer and European commissioner Nana Mouskouri, also has strong support from French president Jacques Chirac, who cut Vat on records from 33% to the standard 18,6% in 1988.
Now standing at 20,6%, the Vat rate is blamed for France’s lack of appetite for buying records.