CMO Management boss Chris Morrison does not share Williams and O'Brien's ambivalence towards file-sharing and the file-sharer community. Giving the key artist manager speech at MIDEM this year, Morrison said file-sharing "is not like taste-testing", arguing that while file-sharers might introduce your artists to new fans, what they actually do is "like inviting new people into your restaurant and telling them to eat all the food you've got [without paying]".

According to Billboard, Morrison continued: "I was ambivalent about illegal downloading until someone stuck one of our records up illegally [Gorillaz's new single 'Stylo']. They [the file-sharers] don't have any interest in it, they don't even make money off it, but they undo all our hard work". While conceding that such leaks often helped build an internet buzz around an artist or release, which could be beneficial, Morrison argued that file-sharing was affecting the investment that labels, artists and others would and could make into the emerging digital music market, and that that was bad news for everyone.

Morrison also challenged those in the industry who, while not necessarily supporting the rights of file-sharers, are of the opinion stopping the file-sharing phenomenon by force is an unwinnable battle. He concluded: "Illegal downloading can be stopped. We have to take the gloves off and say it has to be stopped".

Morrison's session, which also featured contributions from the aforementioned Mark Wood, also touched on Pharrell's other suggestion that artists should be courting the advertising and marketing sectors as much as the record companies.

Morrison expressed concern about the often popular theory that artists could and should compensate for slumping record sales by eagerly signing up to brand partnerships. Duffy's advert for Diet Coke was "abysmal" he said, while Robbie Williams' appearances in ads for his big sponsor T-Mobile were just "terrible". Though, strangely, Morrison had more time for one of the more controversial rock/brand tie ups of recent times, Iggy Pop's alliance with insurance firm Swiftcover.

Sync right deals Morrison also had more time for, as he admitted that in the case of some songs - Blur's 'Song 2', for example - the monies to be made from licensing a track to adverts and the like greatly exceeded those generated by actual record sales. Wood, meanwhile, spoke out in support of syncing music to TV shows - a growing phenomenon Imogen Heap has benefited from - and which delivers both promotional and financial benefits.

However, Morrison has no time at all for that other TV phenomenon having an impact on the music business, the big-bucks generating Simon Cowell empire. The power of shows like 'American Idol' and 'X-Factor' was not good news for music, he argued, adding that had Simon Cowell and his like been "in charge of the music industry in 1945, rock n roll would never have happened".