On Wednesday, February 11th, I attended the Future of Music Coalition Policy Day in Washington D.C. The event was held at the National Geographic Grosvenor Auditorium and was a fairly well-attended one-day event featuring four panel discussions on several aspects of the current state and changes in copyright policy and digital media.
The Future of Music Coalition is a group I was only recently introduced to, but their mission is participate in the legislative discussions– with musicians (and specifically, independent musicians) interests in mind. Check out the manifesto on their website.
The overall theme of the day centered on the changing nature of the music business, and the fact that right now many policies are being determined that will affect music & digital media for many years to come. Combine this timing with the complexities in the technology of digital media & the internet, and there are incredible possibilities for confusion. Some of the discussions in these policy debates can be technically-advanced and incredibly mind-numbing: the difference between a digital download or a streaming performance; whether a digital copy is really a copy or a just a ghost copy on a server, etc. But, all of these decisions impact how musicians are paid (or not paid), and often determine even if a piece of music (or information, art, photography, etc) is available at all on the internet. We, as musicians, really need to get involved and make ourselves aware of these issues, because there is the potential for so much confusion, and many of the decisions being made right now will affect policies for years to come in the music business.
Check out the Future of Music site for a summary of the days events as well as video of the panels.
http://futureofmusiccoalition.blogspot.com/2009/02/dc-policy-day-amazing.html
There were four panels during the day encompassing the topics of radio in the 21st century, broadband policy, copyright & digital rights policy, and changes in legal & copyright policy in regards to the digital marketplace and the impact on musicians.
Some hightlights: I was impressed by Ben Scott’s insightful, and often inspirational comments during a discussion of broadband policy. Ben is Policy Director for Free Press, an organization that works to reform the media and promote universal access for broadband. He discussed how anyone can participate in the decision making process in DC by communicating with your representatives in Congress. Also, use the power of the web by posting on blogs– every lawmaker has a staff member who monitors Google searches for their congressperson’s name. If you post something on your blog– it will get read, and enough of those comments will have an effect. As an individual, you can also file comments with the FCC regarding their policies. Right now, there is a debate taking place about net neutrality. This could have a huge effect on musicians, and has the potential to stifle the availability of information, and innovation on the internet by allowing your ISP to limit where & what you can see & download online. This is already happening– personally I use Optimum Online as an ISP. They prevent me from sending email through a hosted web server. As the technology advances, these issues will become more & more prevalent.
It was great to hear the comments of so many intelligent & passionate people at the conference, including Michael Petricone, a policy advocate for the Consumer Electronics Association. Michael works on behalf of the companies that manufacture consumer electronics, and so is very much in tune with technological developments. As a part of that, his group wants to ensure that consumers have content available to them on the new devices being created & sold and that the artists and content creators continue to have a marketplace for their work. There are many industries that have similar concerns & desires about the changes in copyright law and digital rights– musicians can find some really great advocates.
The panel after lunch was very entertaining– fireworks from some of the panelists. This was a panel of lawyers that knew each other well, and had obviously had this debate many times before. The topic was Copyright & Innovation in the Digital Age. I enjoyed hearing Zahavah Levine, the Chief Counsel for YouTube do battle with Rick Carnes of the Songwriters Guild of America. As a composer, I understand & support Rick Carnes’ positions, but it was obvious in the discussions that the current trend to dig in our heels as copyright owners, and individual copyright owners (as opposed to publishing companies), may be resulting in the forfeiture of income on the internet. YouTube wants desperately to license music in order to monetize it on their website, the users of YouTube want to use new technology to create their videos using commercial recordings, and just trying to prevent this from happening seems to be a losing battle. To further complicate matters, the current copyright law is based on old technology (tapes & lp’s– physical copies) but the implications of these hundreds of decisions when trying to adapt it to the digital marketplace are huge. Songwriters are paid at completely different rates based on whether something is a download (a sale) or a stream (a performance)– and trying to figure out what is what on the changing nature of the web is a nearly impossible task. There is no easy solution, and the debates will continue, but I am sure more progress will come from compromise & discussion.
I also enjoyed a panel hosted by Derek Sivers. If you’re not familiar with Derek, check out his web site: sivers.org Derek is a musician, and the founder of CD Baby. Lately, he’s been traveling around to conferences and participating as a musician’s advocate. His website is full of great information, both educational & inspirational. He moderated a great panel on the changing policies and the direct effect on musicians– both positive & negative. On the panel was Alec Ounsworth, whose band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is a kind of model for independent promotion– running your own record label. Also, on the panel was David Beal who is president of National Geographic Entertainment, and probably represents the new model for record companies– part of a huge entity, but just involved in a small genre of the market (world music, in their case), but doing it in really new ways like distributing via satellite to third world countries and creating online tv & radio stations. In the process, they open up opportunities for some amazing musicians from around the world and are interested in sharing QUALITY music.
Here are some other links from the day that may be of interest:
Public Knowledge www.publicknowledge.org - Dedicated to promoting public interest in access to information
National Geographic Entertainment
http://www.songwritersguild.com/
http://www.soundexchange.com/ - Collecting & distrubuting online performance royalties for performers. Currently advocating for a radio performance royalty for performers.
