In a new interview, electronic music pioneer and president of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC) Jean Michel Jarre shared his thoughts on the Internet, intellectual property and how they relate to the future of music.

“Our fight and our battle about intellectual property is not defending the rights of rich artists…sitting on their pot of gold. It?s something far beyond this,” argues Jarre. “It’s
questioning the future of creation, the future of our identity, whoever we are…”

“Intellectual property is one of the main elements of our democracy, it’s part of our human rights – our basic human rights! No country can develop its identity without painting, without film, without literature.”

“Stop thinking that the big actors of the internet are our enemies,” he continues. “These people who created Google, Facebook and all these great tools – they are music lovers, they are film lovers. They love artists. They are closer to music and film and arts than a lot of politicians are.”

“These guys were geeks 15 or 20 years ago, dreaming about creating something extraordinary, and they did it, without realizing the collateral damages they were creating, by exciting this kind of constant greed for free content.”

And what Jarre’s perspective on the way forward for musicians and music?

Musicians need to look for new ways to partner with technology companies.

“We made a big mistake on focusing on the consumers, and pointing out the consumers [for piracy}. That is history, that’s the past. How can we cope with the new challenges? The answer is again to think about business partnerships, and this is not begging ‘can we have a few percent of this or that?’.”

What do you think of Jarre’s take on the way forward for musicians in an age of free content? Leave a comment with your thoughts!