Can the Luxembourg music industry model itself after the local financial industry and position itself as a central hub for the launching of music? First Tuesday held a panel discussion at Apoteca on 2 May that raised such challenges as standards and technical interoperability, protection of intellectual property rights, digital rights management (DRM), and the push to simply make life easier for those people who want to buy music.

On 2 May, in the perfect setting of Apoteca"s downstairs lounge, First Tuesday organised a panel of speakers from within the music industry to present their varying perspectives on the direction the industry is taking globally, and on how Luxembourg can position itself better to take advantage of the opportunities.

Jean Diederich, PR and head of distribution for Nylon Records www.nylonrecords.com (which produced a series of albums "Disc-o-take" inspired by the Buddha Bar and has such local DJ/producers on its label as Louis Botella and Shanu Sherwani), said "We should create hubs in Luxembourg for launching music." Diederich compared the music industry to the fund industry saying that with UCITS 3 and the European passport, Luxembourg became a European hub for central cross border distribution. "Why not model the music business after the fund industry'" he asked. "Look at an organisation such as ALFI."

Jean-Paul Zens, Director, Media and Telecom Department, Ministry of State, Luxembourg, was on hand because he is convinced that the music industry has a lot of commercial potential and was demonstrating the government"s possible interest in developing this sector." The government is in listening mode," he said, "We are putting the framework in place, but you have to come up with the ideas. You see that we have already convinced big names like AOL, Itunes, Amazon etc. to come to Luxembourg - but we don't just want the big names but also to encourage Luxembourg talent. The merger between the financial sector and the e-commerce sector has a lot of potential, but what we need to develop is the creative side."

This smart, opportunistic attitude to develop potential sectors in Luxembourg falls in line with a comment made in Prime Minister Juncker"s State of the Nation speech - "Mer wëllen an der Techno-Parad an der éischter Rei matdanzen." - (which very roughly translated means) "We want to be dancing on the front float of the techno parade," and have a say in its development. But this will all depend on the government delivering the right regulatory framework.

Digital downloads are now outselling traditional singles sales. Music experts predict that the industry is moving towards an all-digital format. In his presentation, Diederich pointed out that the on-line music industry is growing at such an astonishing pace, US revenues are expected to grow to 1.27 billion euros by 2008, while European revenues are only forecasted to reach 559 million euros by 2008. Why shouldn't the European music industry figure out a way to get a bigger slice of that pie? Why shouldn't Luxembourg be dancing on the very first float of that techno parade, indeed' Pay attention to this sector. With the right organisation, and the support of the government, some local players could be whistling a very happy tune in the near future.