IMSTA Bulletin - August 2007

IMSTA JAPAN: Up and Running.

IMSTA Japan Team - Kenji Fujita (President, Seedsgrowth Inc. & former License Online CEO), Tack Miyazaki (CTO, Seedsgrowth Inc. & former Product Manager for Sony VAIO), Seiji Murai (Managing Director, MI Seven Japan Inc.), Noboru Murakami (President & CEO, Internet Inc. the No. 1 music software company in Japan), Shigeru Yamaryo (Secretary General, JMECPS - Music Seminars and Correspondence Courses Accredited by the Ministry of Education )

Since its inception in 2004, IMSTA has grown to be an International voice of unity. IMSTA brings together everyone involved in the music software industry, no matter what country they are Located in or what functions they serve in the channel. We are now pleased to announce that IMSTA Japan has officially started its operations. The IMSTA Japan kickoff was held at the Apple Japan Seminar Room, on July 24th 2007, where the executive board met with representatives from numerous vendor companies. The kickoff was a success as over twenty vender companies attended the seminar and showed their support in the fight against piracy. IMSTA is proud to have such dedicated teams of professionals working relentlessly to spread its message throughout the world. To view the IMSTA Japan kickoff pictures click here.

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NAMM REPORT: These Numbers Don't Lie

For those of you who received the 2007 NAMM Global Report, page 28 reveals a somewhat disturbing trend in the Computer Music Market in the United States over the last 10 years. Essentially, the growth in computer hardware peripherals is far outpacing the growth in Software sales. As the graph shows, in 1997 the total U.S. sales of sound cards was about 15 million dollars and the total sales of music software was about 85 million dollars. This means that the sales ratio of software sold to sound cards sold was 5.66 to 1. As you can see, both sound card and software sales have increased appreciably since 1997. However.... Read on

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MEMBER PROFILE: Jerry Kovarsky - Korg Technology Senior Product Manager

Jerry Kovarsky participating in 'Software Day' at Frankfurt Music Messe 2007.

Jerry Kovarsky is a very special person. Not only is he a killer musician and the passionate synthesizer maven of Korg, Casio and Ensoniq fame, but he also is a passionate supporter of IMSTA. As an important member of the Korg team, which is of one of the first of the major synthesizer manufacturers to join IMSTA, we wanted to catch up with Jerry and find out what inspired him to lend his support to our effort. As a trained keyboardist who attended Manhattan School of Music, the University of Miami and has a degree from William Paterson, Jerry is no stranger to software. With Korg's recent venture into the software world, the hardware and software worlds now share the same interests. Read the full interview here.

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IMSTA AD COMPETITION: Submit Your Entry by August 31, 2007

In an effort to improve the quality of our print advertisements, we hereby launch the 2007 IMSTA Ad Competition. Any one can enter and if you win you can even earn some cash. The ad should communicate our central message - buy the software you use - in an effective and interesting way. You can write ads in any language and deliver them produced or in sketch form. Jörg Beckmamm is coordinating the competition and you can send him your ad by email. The executive board will select the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners. For the winners there are cash prizes - 1st prize is $1,000, 2nd is $500 and 3rd is $250. We need to receive your ad by August 31, 2007 and the winning ads will run in most industry trade magazines like Electronic Musician, Keyboard, EQ, Remix, Mix and others. We are looking forward to receiving entries from the creative departments of our members. For more details, download the Ad competition PDF here.

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A QUICK NOTE TO OUR MEMBERS : Please Advise Your Industry Friends to Join IMSTA

IMSTA’s members have contributed tremendously towards its success. By placing the IMSTA badge on their websites, product packaging, and brochures, these members ensure that our message gets heard by as many people as possible. IMSTA would also appreciate it if its members talk about IMSTA with all their affiliates in the industry. Our team reaches out to music software manufacturers, publishers, distributors, and retailers all over the world. However, we would like to see even more incoming inquiries derived from our members’ word of mouth promotions. As members, you have already taken the first step towards unity by joining IMSTA. By displaying the IMSTA badge, you have taken the second step of showing this unity. The third step would naturally be the rallying of all your friends and colleagues in the industry to join IMSTA. Please let everyone share your vision. Our vision.

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MEMBERSHIPS: Join Up, Pay Up and Do Your Part

		IMSTA is the best and only advocacy program the music software industry currently has for fighting piracy. We are fighting piracy on levels that go beyond the obvious. We are trying to change behavior. In order to do this we need a few simple things done by tens of thousands of people - yes, you are one of them. To start, we need you to join IMSTA. To do this fill out our Membership Application Form. Next we do need you to pay your membership dues for 2007. This is a small but vital contribution that you will make to our campaign. We use your money to pay for the things that we can't get volunteers to do. If you haven't paid yet, please do it now. Finally, we need you to begin the process of implementing the program in the Industry Member's Guide. For starter, put the IMSTA Badge on your website. This is as easy as 1, 2, 3. One thing for sure is that we cannot succeed without you.

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See you next month. Ray Williams Director --------------------------------------- 'BUY THE SOFTWARE YOU USE' ---------------------------------------		International Music Software Trade Association PO Box 250813 New York, NY, 10025, USA Tel: 212-865-4792 Fax: 212-665-8707 12 Upjohn Road, Unit 8, Toronto, ON M3B 2V9, Canada Tel: 647 477-8080 Fax: 416 789-1667 To unsubscribe to the IMSTA Bulletin click here