Industry veterans and new generation professionals provide a glimpse into the future of the music business

GRAMMY.com
Chuck Crisafulli

The future of the entertainment business is in your pocket.

That was the strong, hopeful message delivered by keynote speaker Tero Ojanperä, executive vice president of services with Nokia, at Friday's 11th Annual Entertainment Law Initiative Luncheon & Scholarship Presentation. In his address, Ojanperä sketched a vision of the future in which the mobile phone would become an all-purpose centerpiece of personal entertainment, and spoke encouragingly of how new music industry business models could grow from the opportunities now becoming available in mobile phone technology.

While GRAMMY Week is ultimately a celebration of music, the ELI Luncheon gives due attention to business ideas behind the music. In addition to offering attendees a chance to hear remarks from prominent speakers from the field of entertainment law, the event also honors the finalists in the annual ELI Essay Competition. The competition allows law students from across the country a chance to grapple with some of the most pressing issues facing the music industry today and, as Recording Academy and GRAMMY Foundation President/CEO Neil Portnow pointed out in his opening remarks, a dedicated effort this year to spread the word of ELI's aim to keep the industry "vibrant, vital and growing" resulted in a record number of essays submitted for the competition.

The competition is co-sponsored by the American Bar Association, and submitted essays are reviewed by an expert grading committee comprised of attorneys and music industry professionals, with a grand prize winner receiving a $5,000 scholarship and four runners-up receiving $1,500 scholarships.

Following a warm welcome from GRAMMY Foundation Vice President Scott Goldman and introductory remarks from Foundation Board Chair George Jones, this year's five finalists were called to the stage by ELI program chair Ken Abdo. In past years, the presentation of the finalists and their essay topics has ranged in tone from an in-depth question-and-answer session to a more casual affair — Abdo announced that he'd attempt to strike a happy medium between "just hanging out" and "grilling."

The four runners-up were Nakimuli Davis, University of Mississippi School of Law; Tim Kappel, Loyola University New Orleans; Joseph Merante, New York Law School; and Kimberly Sweet, University at Buffalo Law School. Essay topics ranged from Merante's examination of the role of Internet service providers in collective licensing agreements and Kappel's prescription for a fan-funded system of investment in performers' works to Sweet's admonition for an efficient pan-European system of music licensing and Davis' critical analysis of a developing market for the resale of digital works.

This year's grand prize winner was David A. McGill from the University of Richmond School of Law. His winning paper argued that the problem of digital piracy could not be effectively countered through agreements between the music industry and Internet service providers, but only through an increased reliance on criminal penalties for piracy. (This point of view prompted Abdo to refer to McGill as a "prosecutor to be and a budding hard-ass.")

After the competition finalists left the stage to rousing applause, Abdo presented this year's ELI Service Award to Jay L. Cooper, an esteemed and well-known figure in entertainment law who has created a generous legacy of, as Abdo put it, "educating and edifying." A past Academy Chairman/President, Cooper admitted to being emotionally overwhelmed and "a little speechless" before his crowd of colleagues. Nonetheless, he went on to offer two key pieces of career guidance. First, that time is a precious possession to be either wasted or invested. And, second, that the only possession of equal value is one's reputation. Cooper went on to delight the crowd with some random tales of hilarious legal escapades that involved such wide-ranging talents as James Brown, Steely Dan, Keith Jarrett, Lionel Richie, Lenny Bruce, and Phil Spector.

Keynote speaker Ojanperä had plenty to say as well but, rather than relying on anecdotes, he made one of his strongest points with the help of a visual aid. Telling the crowd that he wanted to show them the product Nokia was most excited about when he joined them nearly 20 years ago, he walked off stage briefly and reappeared shouldering a large car tire. (The company has a 150-plus-year history of manufacturing a variety of goods other than electronics and mobile phones.) Ojanperä pointed out that if his company could move from being proud of its tires to becoming the number one producer of mobile phones in the world, then perhaps the music industry's future challenges are not as daunting as they seem.

But Ojanperä went beyond a discussion of business models and technology to remind his audience that the value of music could not be measured in the ease or speed of downloads. "Music is something deeper," he said. "It's something which moves people emotionally. We can't forget that."

(Read our GRAMMY Week event blogs.)