FMC Policy Summit Live Blog

The Final Session II (40 posts, three days, whew!)

2009-10-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

Erin: reunion of those of us who have been on the New Orleans retreat, I think kids who have music education and learn to play an instrument might be less likely to steal music because they'll think of it differently and not just something that shows up on their iPod

Martin: I used to steal my neighbors tomatoes and throw them against their house, and in the past few years I've started organic gardening and if I'd caught myself doing that back then I would have beat the shit out of myself.

Audience: are you getting involved in the education system?

Erin: Involved in two rock and roll camps for girls

Nicole: Trying to get a music mentorship program in Asbury Park

Martin: Yes but not directly, running the complementary music program to what happens in the schools. Use the music passport to ride the bus for free, get in for free, and then blog about it and that is your homework.

audience member:
www.myspace.com/project55pgh

audience member:
kids have no idea what an album is. kids had favorite songs, favorite bands, but NO concept of favorite album by favorite band. is there a value in teaching these kids about sgt pepper and the white album?

Vijay: Well if you want to get into cannon building it should be a shared effort.

Martin: Our band played It Takes A nation of Millions to Hold Us Back live with PE and the Roots, it's interesting to have these concerts where they whole album is played live. Heard Dub Side of the Moon and liked Pink Floyd...whether it's playing whole albums or hearing album redone, really gives you a new perspective

The Final Session

2009-10-06T16:52:00.000-04:00

Martin Perna: All the things we're creating in this digital world will be here when we're gone, so they'll have to be lived under or re imagined

Erin McKeown: I feel as an artist my head is going to explode. Looking at some of the artists I've seen speak and stepping way back from this conference into a bigger picture. One of the things I'm seeing is the new DIY is the old DIY. Putting your energy and integrity into it.

Nicole Atkins: Figuring out what I can do with my6 life besides creating songs. Trying to figure out how I can help out in my town.

Martin: How do we cultivate arts experiences in the future. Still a lot of division where people don't think they're in the right place, so the Artist's Passport in Austin goes to high school students so they have a document of their cultural involvement.

Nicole: I'm still taking in the whole copyright, Rhapsody, downloading thing. I buy vinyl.

Vijay Iyer: Ornette Coleman once made the distinction between the music business and the music world. We are not our playlists, we are bigger than that. I'm always interested in how grassroots movements in marginal communities, and how music becomes like water, what will be the next community to re purpose music to suit their needs. What is the future of the music business in terms of diversity? Who is making decisions that affect those communities? Does the future of music provide longevity to artists? What happens to an artist who is 50 or 60 or 70 years old?

Notes from the Twitter feed:
A lot have to do with not-sucking
"If someone names their band Various Artists they'll make a lot of money" (Sound Exchange, Debbie said it today, but I've heard John Simson say it before)
Engagement of fans is replacing sales as measure of success

Jean Cook: Is it?
Vijay: For jazz, festival and club owners are still gatekeepers to fans.
Martin: Label said we should have had more sales based on our club attendance
Erin: Some disconnect between online numbers and people who see me in a club. A little disturbed that online followers has replaced Soundscan.

Kristin Thompson from Twitter: What a musical turning point was in your life
Erin: (played with five heroes)
Martin: spending a month in Cuba, music fills a much more community and spiritual need.
Vijay: Turning point in musical lives or careers? I remember wacking on my sister's piano when I was five. In 97 I traveled to Sengal. A year after I moved to NY...wrote a feature in the Village Voice and that really got the ball rolling for me.
Nicole: When I started writing my own songs when I was 20, I was always in someone else's band. I listened to Big Star and Uncle Tupelo and wrote what I called my "weird songs", but I didn't play them. Then I played them for my friend in Virginia Reel and he said "your weird songs are your good songs, your other stuff is boring."

Tag: Metadata's Growing Role in Artist's Compensation

2009-10-06T14:10:00.000-04:00

Peter Jenner-it's a worldwide business, there are thousands of databases that contradict each other maybe what we need is a barcode number on every piece of music that tracks it wherever it goes, somewhere there needs to be a registry which matches the number with a file that has the music that would resolve conflicts. Do we agree that there should be a central numbering database like an ISBN

Barrie Kessler: This is a high volume, low number business. For Sound Exchange we have a fairly significant amount of royalties that is tied up in bad data. I don't think the industry as a whole understands the costof crappy data. Also, unregistered artists we can't find to pay.

Kristin Thompson: Does the problem start with the data the radio stations are using?

Barrie: We're supposed to get all our data from the services, we have spent massive amounts of money writing code deciphering the data that comes in. Then we can decide who we are going to pay and who we need to reach out to.

Audience: Is there a negative reaction to Peter's proposal out there? There is a major label that did digital watermarking.

Brian Zisk: Why should splits be made public? Some crazy is going to track me down if they find out I own 75% of this track.

Barrie: I think we need to get away from the notion that the data has some kind of value. The services around the data have value. The facts of a song, who the featured performer is, who the background musician and the session player is, what the title is; what changes is the owner, the splits. The facts don't change and are public, the other information could be private.

Peter: I think that's what's going to happen, more and more blanket uses and less licensing. There needs to be an archive that is availble to all professional people that has this informatino.

Robert Kaye: A lot of what MusicBrainz is trying to do is this. It is all in the public domain. One of the things I want to do, and Musicbrainz is starting to get the credibility to have these conversations with Sound Exchange and others that we have this information. I don't need to know where the owner lives or what the splits are, but I want the PROs to use this information.

Jim Selby: ISBN is a nightmare, it's a prefix and there are tons of duplicates.

Robert: People ask me why I don't work with the labels more, because their data isn't the same as the people maintaining the data

How deep should you go with the metadata?
Peter: this is why it should grow and grow and grow.

Robert: I'm going to challenge the idea that this is complicated or expensive?
Barrie: How do you ensure the accuracy?
Robert: Peer review, that's why I send it out to all these other systems and databases.
Peter: There is going to be so much more music done online by kids on their phones and mashups, but there is no label to ask for this information

Peter: I think I opened up a can of worms, I doubt in ten years there will be a system that can get an artist his money to France or Africa or India, I think this is a long-term international problem. At the end of the day there is also the problem of getting it travelling internationally, who owns it, licensing it, people who have changed addresses. There are going to be more and more piles of money and more and more people raising their hand saying "It's mine".

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stupid computer network is cranky, sorry this will be delayed
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We thought 5TB would be adequate, with compression now we think maybe 10-15TB would be adequate. (think about price 10 years ago) Right now we can do what would have cost a million dollars for under a thousand now. There probably is a limit to how cheap they can go. Ed Felten of Princeton has cracked every data security thing within hours (ohh, check out his blog, it's nerdy)

Rick Karr: Sometimes with a sharpie (DRM on CDs, look it up)

Sandy: Soon enough, this will be on a portable infinite library disc. A year ago I walked up to William Gibson and asked him about the implantable library, he said "that's too weird for me."

I have reservations about the cloud, for instance, I can't get online here.

Sandy: I don't trust Google. I don't want them monitizing my information

Audience: At SF Music Tech attitude was no one will want to own data, just access
Sandy: Torrents make up most internet traffic. A lot is video. Still, every one of the subscription services will be a failure.

(and sorry I was gone, but that conference center was a dead zone)

Brian Message and Eliot VanBuskirk

2009-10-06T11:12:00.000-04:00

Eliot: Has there every been a time when the artist fan relationship has been as the center of music?
Brian: Not like now, some things in the past

Eliot: Are fan clubs a useful template?
Brian: I think in the past fan clubs have been a fringe part of the industry. Radiohead doesn't have a paid fan club. The notion of having a tribe of followers as an artist is a good one

Eliot: Atlantic Records is making a platform of tools for their artists to use, should that be a standard thing?
Brian: I think it's a part of the spectrum, if you're a young artist that cares about your career you have to be saavy and use some of these tools. It's about engagement and what they do with their careers. We as managers should have artists at the center of what we do.

It's easy as human beings to point the finger at why things didn't happen. Recorded music is still the language between artists and fans. If you pass that control over to someone else, it's very easy to do that, it's not so good. Certainly we have found with a number of our artists, they understand we live or die now by what we do, not the management. ie instead of the Rifles hanging out backstage after a show they go sign merch, fans love it

Eliot: So there is a kind of apathy
Brian: better to sit down with the artist, look at markets, what needs to be done

Eliot: What do artists need?
Brian: Good, honest team members. They have to trust their managers, advisors, label, whatever. It's not so difficult anymore, having a core central team and from that core you can basically push out from

Eliot: Since we're here to talk about artist responsibility, how did the Featured Aritsts Coalition come about?
Brian: FAC is a group of artists coming out of the UK, there was a group of artists signed in the UK with no mention of consultation with artists (huh?) I went out to the Hollywood Bowl and sat down with Radiohead. They said great, we want to be a part of this. I went back to the UK and hooked up with another one of our artists, Kate Nash, and she said, I get this is about artists taking responsibility, what next?
130 artists got together two weeks ago and came up with a statement.

Eliot: So it's not worth hiding behind "oh the labels hate filesharing and we love it"
Brian: There are a lot of difficult issues and it's worth getting involved

Eliot: We have to bring up In Rainbows (Radiohead). What lessons do you think are there for other artists or the industry.
Brian: I think for the band it's about the creation of the music, that sort of unlocked the notion of doing some interesting things. Having come out of the label and going into the zone of being their own bosses. It wasn't about being their own bosses, it was about doing something exciting and challenging. What I love about it is everyone brought it to the table and said "This is what we're going to do." And they live or die by it. Watching that whole process evolve was really special. It wan't about reinventing any wheels."

Eliot: So part of all that was using investors instead of labels, do you think that's the right thing to do now?
Brian: I think there are lots of people who can partner with bands. It could be labels and managers, that might not work for other people. (examples of bands that do it traditionally and use other investments). You have to do it differently.

Eliot: It's a distracting time to be a music fan, there is such a glut of music coming to everybody. How do you think it's possible to cut through all that and keep people's attentions?
Brian: You have to be good at what you do. Part of this whole relationship business between us and fans is that the fan has to love and respect what we do. each artist has to get that level of respect and trust to get above the noise. It really is a classic cultural relationship. Its not about sales sales sales, it's a lot softer than that.

Eliot: So it's not about sales, you have to be a community organizer...it's about the number of engaged fans....what future models do you see that will put this artist fan relationship at the center?
Brian: There are a lot of people doing a lot of great work. build value, get that framework right, i think there could be a plethora of business models sitting on top of that.

Eliot: Can the 360 deal be aligned with this?
Brian: "I sound like Bill Clinton here, depends on what the definition of is is" Sometimes it's good to sell music, sometimes it's good to give it away, there should be no hard and fast rules

Eliot: What lessons are there for policymakers in the States?
Brian: I think it would be great both in the US and UK if the music and technology industries work together. In the 1930s there was a whole bunch of useful legislation in the radio industry here.

Audience Questions

What is the upside to Radiohead not making albums?
Brian: I couldn't tell you what they're doing next
Eliot: I asked him the same thing before this and he didn't tell me

I want to ask about the role of advertisers...some advertisers are signing artists, some corporations might be artist sponsors...
Brian: Goes back to artist and set of values, for some artists being part of a Nike tribe would be great. Kate Nash doesn't want to be part of that, and that's her makeup. It's a personal choice, you set your values as what you do as an artist. It's not about a blanket approach, it's a personal think about values and choices.

Should fans approach bands?
Brian: Like microinvestment. There are a couple of operations that do that.

Ian McKaye and Wayne Kramer

2009-10-06T10:34:00.000-04:00

Wayne: take instruments into prisons to teach them how to take things out in non confrontational ways. a way of building self esteem, I'm not encouraging prisoners to go into the music business.
Ian: Music and music business are not synonymous. Music predates language. People ask me a music question and its a business question

Audience: transparency, how frustrating it is when someone says they can't talk about it
Ian: we were kids when we started this company. there was no established business model when we started. we didn't learn from people who perfected the art of ripping people off. we don't have contracts so we don't need lawyers. we still pay royalties on singles from 1981. we have musicians who tell us to stop sending them checks.

Audience: Can you talk about your first instruments
Wayne: I heard something in the electric guitar that I didn't hear in the acoustic guitar. There were also music programs in the Detroit public schools. Music confirms I'm not alone, I'm connecting with James Brown
Iam: I started as a piano player. I started when I was three, playing Louie Louie. I became obsessed with a song called Last Date, I think my babysitter wanted to kill me, I just wanted to listen to it over and over. I was obsessed with Woodstock, my family would drive around and I would look for where I wanted to have my Woodstock and make lists of who I wanted to play...in highschool I became a skateboarder, it was radical and visionary, and then punk rock came into the picture...I saw the Cramps...I joined a punk band and I could play on one string...

Audience: what are you writing now?
Wayne: I had to write my own songs, in Detroit I could work in bars but you had to play top ten, but it started to be a grind. I wanted to play auditoriums and go on tour, and I realized they wrote their own songs and I had to write my own songs. I just finished a score for a PBS film, free jazz, but right now I'm working on a little album, acoustic, something I can drive around the country in a car and play myself.
Ian:I think for me I was incapable of playing other people's music. Growing up around Peter Frampton and the Eagles, I just couldn't get my head around how they played. But hearing the Sex Pistols doing cover songs, doing other people's songs but making it your own.

We would tell people we had a band and we wrote our own songs and people were just, whoa! For me it was a collaborative process. Now in this band the Evens I'm playing a baritone guitar, and we have to really force to think, how can we make this sound good. If I understood what that process is I'd put out a lot more albums.

Daniel Ek of Spotify and Casey Rae Hunter FMC

2009-10-06T09:42:00.000-04:00

Casey: Can you tell me how you came up with the concept for Spotify?
Daniel: We started the company in 2006. 99% of music online is illegal. You want to share music with your friends. In 2006 the RIAA went after individual users, similar cases in Europe...I ultimately believe that is wrong. We want to be a music management platform where you can share music with your friends, and find new music.

Casey: How does the sharing mechanism work?
Daniel: Any think on Spotify can be dragged and dropped...make playlists...there are about fifty sites that aggregate Spotify playlists

Casey: You were talking about the really high percentage of illegal music on the internet. In the US there have been a lot of sites that have been make it available first, license it later

Daniel: I spent two years going through licensing content, not only the majors but the indies as well. About 25% of the content on Spotify is indie content. We don't have any sophisticated finding mechanisms but people do find it

Casey: How do unaffiliated/indie artists get on Spotify?
Daniel: We support a lot of aggregators, everything from CD Baby to IODA and the Orchard, hopefully in the future we can support artists directly uploading their music to Spotify but for now you have to go through an aggregator. We want to give the data back to the users, we have a lot of data about where the users are and such

Casey: The actual desktop client is really rugged, there's no buffer time at all, how important was that to you in the design?
Daniel: I think that's been crutial. The fact is we don't offer any discovery mechanism, but we have 4-5 times to usage of any other service, and that's because of speed. We want people to use this as their primary music service.

Casey: And you know what you're getting. Now, Spotify comes with an ad version and a paid version with special features
Daniel: On the paid side, we have better sound quality, we have portability (move it to a mobile device), we have some settings where you can fine tune your experience, there are some play lists you can cache and listen to offline

Casey: Two services I like in the US: Rhapsody and eMusic both have editorial content...any plans to roll that out
Daniel: That's a more philosophical thing for us, other people do that, you will see us open up a range of APIs you can use that will do that

Casey: waiting to see if iPhone Spotify app will be approved or is it too much like iTunes? It was approved, along with Rhapsody.
Daniel: Look that iPhone App store has exceeded iTunes revenue, so ultimately it aids them in selling their devices to have these apps approved

Casey: Predictions for next 5-10 years?
Daniel: I don't do predictions more than 3 years. Hopefully Spotify will be able to get music to your other devices like Nokia or Blackberry. Pay for Spotify through ads or purchasing downwloads or physical merchandise.

Casey: What role do you think Spotify might play in artists revenue streams?
Daniel: not sure this is going to remain the way it is, if you look at my native country Sweden we've got 90% of the population using broadband, 50% are using spotify, Bit Torrent traffic is down. We're growing 50-70% in revenues to the artists month to month.

Putting strain on networks, growing 25,000 members a day even with the new invite only system. Several ISPs have said they've had to add capacity because of Spotify.

Casey: When can we expect a US launch?
Daniel: We don't know. We're hoping for the end of the year, beginning of next.

Nicole Atkins and Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA)

2009-10-06T09:22:00.000-04:00

Nicole: what made you a champion of community radio?

Mike Doyle: there is a lot of consolidation in radio now, low-power radio gives people a voice, lets you discuss local issues, low power radio was critical during Hurricane Katrina, and all the arguments against it are bogus. interference argument has been debunked.

Nicole: Mike wanted me to ask you, what's up with you and GirlTalk?

Doyle: He's a Pittsburgh boy, so I have his back. I met Greg Gillis right after Nightripper came out...I admit he samples my favorite band a lot, Earth, Wind and Fire...the way the law is structured today if he had to get clearances from the people holding the copyrights, and i think his work is transformative, what's the process to compensate 300 artists where you've sampled three seconds of each song...as I said, he's a Pittsburgh guy and we have to stick up for each other

take time at the local level to contact your representative in Congress

Nicole: The last think I want to ask you is your thoughts on health care

Doyle: If I were the benevolent dictator of this system we would have had a single payer system yesterday. most areas of the country only have one or two or three insurance companies, that's not competition

NPR Music Part II

2009-10-05T18:06:00.000-04:00

Audience member, former NPR: How about HD Radio?
Josh: HD Radio is dead. ultimately this is about creating high quality content.

Wrap up?
John: Radio is still relevant, that's why we're still here.
Josh: "Jazz isn't dead, it doesn't even smell funny."

And off to the Merge Records Cocktail Party

NPR Music Part I

2009-10-05T17:27:00.000-04:00

Anne Celenza, Georgetown University: With NPR Music there is "empty space" to think, there is an intern program

Bob Boilen: we don't expect the audience to like every song, but to understand it or find it interesting

Josh Jackson: "Sometimes we have more people watching the Village Vangard than there are spaces in the club." lowering the barrier to jazz, making it "easy to come to and check it out"

Anya Grundmann :Trying to figure out how to get musicians and fans to interact in the online space

Anne: it's very transgenerational, people who might not listen to one genre are trying out other things

I didn't catch any John Davis quotes so can I say he's 1/2 of the 3rd cute boy table of the day? Can I defend myself saying i grew up reading Sassy magazine?

audience member: are you a tastemaker, or a critic, or something else (more complicatedly put)

Bob Boilen insists he picks out music for All Songs Considered because he likes it, that he blurs the line between critic and fan, tries to get facts straight but it's fuzzy, he's a music fan

Josh: This portal has started to radically change jazz musicians, especially those under 40 years old, jazz has always been an indie community, NPR allows me to add an editorial voice

John: The problem with traditional radio is when you listen to it I feel like they don't care, you feel like it's programed by a computer and in many cases it is.

(to prove my strange obsession with radio people, this is the first panel in two days that I have confidently memorized the panelists names right away)]

audience member David Baskin, Canadian jazz DJ, asks what NPR is doing to get their shows out internationally and how foreign broadcasters can get their shows on NPR

Anya: there are a lot of rights and licensing problems with international programs.
mentions that Bob was there at the beginning of the indie rock craze

(so I'm not the only one wondering how much of a tastemaker he is, so many of my friends who don't listen to indie rock/pop will have heard of a band i love because of All Songs Considered)

Bob: with the live show broadcasts, some of the bands don't tour to the smaller places people listen in from, he saw Talking Heads and Pere Ubu in this room (gaston hall) in 1978

Up in Your Bits III

2009-10-05T17:00:00.000-04:00

Dan Klein: We spend a tremendous amount of time doing takedown of criminal child abuse sites. The only people who can afford takedown are the large Hollywood film studios. We need to differentiate between the criminal and the civil cases.

Hal Ponder: "one of the biggest takers of your music is am/fm radio, and i want you to support the performance rights act."

Audience member: kids I work with are getting frustrated with corrupted files and illegal downloading (hmm, my day job kids can't afford mp3 players and are just hooked on YouTube, will they ever pay for music?)

the conversation turns to class, Michael talks about it in terms of "value added" services and being too busy to do anything but pay the $1 from iTunes

Rob Kaye, Musicbrainz, on deep packet inspection, he would use SSL and get rid of the problem. "I'm really surprised computer geeks haven't done this out of principal yet."

Conversation shifts to web developers and other rights holders who weren't able to use their client's work. Had to layoff employees and cancel their health insurance.

Brian Zisk: "Filesharing causes death!"

Up in Your Bits Part II

2009-10-05T16:42:00.000-04:00

Michael Petricone: too late to stop illegal filesharing, "feels like Groundhog Day!", concert revenues are up,

Hal: but people are losing money everyday because their music is out there on the internet

Patrick: Groundhog Day is perfect, asks the audience who has a website now (lots)and who had one in 1995 (not many), used web to promote his writing and syndicate his humor column

Brian Zisk: Bit Torrent is different because it's not anonymous

Harold Feld, Public Knowledge: there is a culture of user behavior and there is a culture of regulatory behavior

Brian Zisk "You didn't realize that mp3s were a threat before Napster? Then why did you pass the DMCA?"

Up in Your Bits

2009-10-05T15:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry for dissapearing for a bit there. Both .the commputer and Courtney are recharged in time for the final two panels and then the Merge Cocktail Party after. That said, there were a lot of bits about digital distribution that I missed and you should really check out the archives when that's available if you're interested in non-physical retail. There was some worry at the end that the same issues that were part of the debate ten years ago might be part of the debate ten years from now, but there is no way to predict what technologies we face in the future.

Patrick Ross, Copyright Alliance:
You don't want to get into a situation where you're monitoring technology instead of behavior

Daniel Klein, Detica Group: understanding what your fans are doing, measuring what people are doing

Harold Feld, Public Knowledge: how comfortable are you with being monitored? That's what we're talking about "do you want people spying on you?" Had internet shut down when accused of downloading something he never heard of, with no notice and no appeal process. Don't think of this as a business opportunity or something to leverage, "Once it's there for one purpose, it's there for every purpose."

Patrick: "Boy the ISP picked the wrong person to shut down". The Olympic's committee has a right to appeal.

Michael Petricone, Consumer Electronics Association: Why don't people encrypt their data, as a start? I wish some of the time spent on enforcement and chasing was spent on innovation

Dan: Look at Google as a sponsor (and hey, as a quick solution for me to make this blog) and see what data they have on your music. Look at your iTunes data.

Shattering the Crystal Ball: Peering Beyond the Digital Revolution III

2009-10-05T14:50:00.000-04:00

Peter Jenner
we can't stop copying, (points to the bloggers) "you're copying me!"

"It's an enormous bit to get the turkeys to vote for Christmas."

We need to know what is going on with Google, and the artists aren't allowed to know what the deal was.

"And we don't care if it's on EMI or Universal, NOBODY GIVES A DAMN.

AND you still have Tim Quirk/Pandora on stage with Steven Marks of the RIAA.
having to renegotiate everytime a new technology comes out, is it the fault of the tech company for not negotiating a better contract to begin with? Guess who is on each side.

Shattering the Crystal Ball: Peering Beyond the Digital Revolution Part II

2009-10-05T14:40:00.000-04:00

Tim Quirk: 1999 mp3 overtook sex as #1 search term, yet many major labels took until 2008 to sell mp3s

major labels went in with lots of DRM, wanted to sell singles for $3.99.

Steven Marks, RIAA: "unfortunately we were in a position of reacting to something that was very disruptive to the market"

Tim: I got tired of that in 2002

Steven: It was very 20th century

Tim: There was a demand for ala carte, mp3s. Biggest problem we have now is an ineffective licensing structure

Roberta: I'm also an anthropologist of social change. "it is a series of small steps, sometimes big steps, you might make a step in the wrong direction because things are changing all the time."

Shattering the Crystal Ball: Peering Beyond the Digital Revolution

2009-10-05T14:20:00.000-04:00

Steve Marks, RIAA
Johanna Shelton, Google... in the past we were here talking about blocking content but this year we are more about collaborating and seeing what fans can do on the internet (ie the wedding dance video, Chris Brown claimed song and went to #3 on Amazon)

(futhermore, the couple in the video embedded links to donate to violence prevention, turning around who benefits again)

Tim Quirk, Rhapsody/Too Much Joy: "I kinda miss the early days of FMC when people would almost get in fistfights on the stage"

Andrew Noyes, moderator/journalist: "I blame Obama"

Peter Jenner, Sincere Management: How can we make a sensible business with what is going on? One problem in the US...too many lawyers.

"Copyright as we have it now has ceased to be a useful device. But I still want to get paid.l ,

FCC Chair Julius Genachowski Part I

2009-10-05T14:07:00.000-04:00

Bonarama "introduces" FCC Chair Julius Genachowski, who proceeds to thank a bunch of the FMC staffers.

"I can't sing and my guitar playing days are behind me."

A riff on net neutrality in Bruce Springsteen titles written by a staffer.

You can participate at:
www.openinternet.gov

you don't have to be Springsteen to reach your audience on the internet.

these ideas don't conflict with the idea of a safe, spam free internet.

Here is a bit about the digital divide:
75% of Fortune 500 companies only list their jobs online.
Only 50% of core country fans have internet access at home.

More info at www.broadband.gov

more from Senator Al Franken

2009-10-05T12:43:00.000-04:00

Even before this conference, I just love the sound of saying "Senator Al Franken". So here is cute boy table #2 for today:

Mike Mills asks Senator Franken a few questions about his political career...

Questions from the audience:
Thank you for your support of the performance right

Important as a recording and radio performer, support with a staggered scale for different sized radio stations

How about piracy?

Not sure of the technology, still pro-net neutrality. "needs to be resolved by people who are expert in that technology and architecture. I don't want a tubes moment here."

Al Franken in Gaston Hall

2009-10-05T12:42:00.000-04:00

Doesn't it look like we're in church?

Senator Al Franken and Mike Mills of REM

2009-10-05T12:10:00.000-04:00

After making fun of such things of the future such as REM, this other new band from Athens called the B-52s, and Gaston Hall, Senator Al Franken took on the importance of Net Neutrality.

"Right now a blog loads just as quickly as a corporate webpage, an email just as smoothly as a bill from your bank...a garage band can stream its songs just as quickly as a multi platinum band like REM...don't like the internet so much now do you Mike?"

1. Censorship. When providers determine speed, they are very close to deciding what comes through at all.

2. Innovation, if we change the rules to benefit the big guys how will the little guys complete

Look at Iran, inspects and blocks content in real time "Cool isn't it?" Remember when Verizon blocked messages from NARAL? Comcast has used deep packet inspection to block peer to peer. AT&T dropped the audio during Pearl Jam's criticism of President Bush.

CTO of Bell South compared internet access to buying transportation tickets.

"As far as I'm concerned, free speech limited or free speech delayed is the same as free speech denied"
(APPLAUSE!!! Someone's going to transcribe this for real, right?)

Scratch That III

2009-10-05T11:42:00.000-04:00

Kembrew: No statute of limitations on sampling right now.

Hank: Artists can sue you years later for samples, after the money is spent.

Peter D: There is a statute of limitations, they can go back three years, not twenty years (where is this? is it renewed with syncing material? only affects recent sales?)

Tony: If you don't register your work with copyright office it makes it difficult to pursue copyright violations

Scratch That II

2009-10-05T11:20:00.000-04:00

Hank Shocklee (The Bomb Squad/Public Enemy) is disagreeing that after clearing a sample once that it should be re-cleared for sync rights (ie for video games and movies.

Tony Berman: problem with blanket licensing is it will be hard to figure out the cost/value of a particular sample

Hank: There should be a distinction between looping a sample or taking a small piece. "I think there is a way to determine the difference...I think you could go to the software industry and those guys can figure it out."

Tony: Still need a rate card, something to determine...There should be a way to determine the algorithm, "we do need a way to figure out the metadata of who owns these works"

Kembrew: I want to add another thing to my list earlier, in what ways could a sample be a fair use?

(check the webcast on this one, I may have mixed up the Peters and Tony when they were going really fast)

Scratch That: The Sample License Clearance and Artists Compensation

2009-10-05T11:01:00.000-04:00

Kembrew McCloud:

4 categories for reform proposals (these are things to consider)

1. enhanced property rights
no such thing as a diminimus use (using a little bit) for sound recordings set in the Bridgeport decision
"creating a lean, mean licensing machine"

2. cover songs, just pay the set rate, no negotiation with copyright holder; want to create a similar system for sampling
can't say no, can't negotiate rate

3. non infringing uses\
tiny samples and fair use, Bridgeport did not discard fair use

4. innovations in voluntary licensing
Creative Commons "Basically creates a lawyer free zone"
creating an ASCAP or BMI for clearances
creating a database of contacts for clearances

The New DIY Part IV

2009-10-05T10:11:00.000-04:00

Erin: still loves the idea of a collection of songs she choose, reason some songs didn't make it onto album, importance of playing live, touring 40 dates with Jill Sobule, doing a live talk show on Ustream with Jill, "way to provide a level of contact with our fans that has a level of integrity and spontaneity"

Mac: Superchunk was excited to make record covers, still loves the idea of a curated collection of songs, but is still interested in some band's b-sides and other songs, need continuous flow of content to keep up with things like Pitchfork replaces set of reviews every 24 hours. Lou Barlow made a making of video and 5 videos (can I endorse this? you know, I am, because I am missing Lou Barlow at the Mercury Lounge tomorrow, so watching these videos is the only way I'm going to see him until the Dino Jr/Sonic Youth show in November.LooTube

I'm sorta platonically smitten with Mac too, I think this is 1996:

The New DIY Part III

2009-10-05T09:58:00.000-04:00

(Greg, Mac, Yancey: aka the cute boy table)

Mac McCaughan, Merge/Superchunk/Portastatic: "I feel so old fashioned having a label." Does things musicians don't want or like to do, fans might like one band on the label and seek out others. Unauthorized ownloading of big sellers isn't as important as the sales of smaller artists on Merge.

Emily White, Whitesmith Entertainment: On Family of the Year'ssocial networking/online presence "It'a a big difference when it comes from the band and not one of my interns."

The New DIY Part II

2009-10-05T09:46:00.000-04:00

Erin McKeown- didn't want to do something online that felt artificial (ie t-shirt contest), but selling passwords to live or archived concerts in unusual places like in the water (check out the cover of Modest Mouse's Float On on YouTube)

Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter- funding for musicians and other projects, "this morning we crossed one million dollars in pledges" Allison Weiss of Athens GA, very cute and got her funding almost right away.

2009-10-05T09:29:00.001-04:00

Good morning!

We're webcasting today, so if you can sneak in video take a look at : http://futureofmusic.org/events/future-music-policy-summit-2009

Intro Greg Kot, moderator, author of Ripped
"Every artist is DIY, no matter who you are." Examples: Dan Deacon causing a near riot at the Pitchfork fest, Trent Reznor's direct to fans album 1.7 million dollars in one week. "This is the central change of the past ten years." Oops, Mac McCaughan was in Portastatic, not Portishead. If anyone needs a fact checker for early 90s indie rock/indiepop history, I think I know someone who can help.

Bertis Downs, REM. Took cassettes to NYC, didn't tour for some of the biggest records, Peter (Buck) has played on a few Merge Records.

If I had a printer I'd make a trivia contest tonight at the cocktail party to see who was paying attention.

I hope the webcasters get some shots of the ridiculously amazing gorgeous murals in this room. This photo is by ehpien on flickr, but it gives you a good idea of where we're at.

DC101 Part III: The Panelists

2009-10-04T16:20:00.000-04:00

DeAnne Culler: Local conflicts between artists, radio, promoters, club owners, press, government led to creation of Texas Media Empowerment Project.

Legal/gov't issues ie net neutrality, we try to translate these issues into musician-speak:

"that thing coming up"

Candace Clement/Free Press: everyone has access to internet, net neutrality, media policy
remember why broadcast still matters, not everyone has broadband access

(ohhh I spy Mike Dreese of Newbury Comics over there.)

Helen Bruner (advocate for musician's royalties)

****
A little conversation on the possibility of payola for digital radio...and we're off to a screening of Copyright Criminals and then Pho!!!

See you tomorrow!

DC101 Part II

2009-10-04T16:05:00.000-04:00

Broadband deployment: Spectrum reform to facilitate wireless access, "access to music is one of the reasons people use broadband in the first place", more legal licensed services generating money in the economy, hopefully trickling down to the artists

Net neutrality: common carrier based on phone company laws, you can call whoever you want...around 2003/2004 high speed broadband technology started coming around and became subject to regulation, abandoned common carrier in favor of interstate information (something I just lost, commenters help me out here)...I can't keep up here, how about checking out zdnet's description instead?

Paraphrasing Michael Bracy:
"we're challenging the economic structures that incentivize consumers going to content that the service providers approve of" "is there a connection between network neutrality and the unauthorized distribution of content?" "we think they're different issues"

I will quote him here:
"we've got a five hour discussion of that tomorrow, that will be GREAT!"

Digital Duckets

2009-10-04T15:10:00.000-04:00

Paul Rapp: you cam license your music for tv/film/games. Be aware that scams abound online, Google and/or consult your lawyer, and especially beware of exclusive contracts.

"i hear there are some hipster bands in Brooklyn making music they think would be great for commercials...I wouldn't reccommend that."

Digital Duckets II

2009-10-04T15:09:00.000-04:00

Dazzled by Robert Kaye's orange and purple wavy striped hair.

The conversation is heavy on royalty technicalities right now. producers, writers and performers caught up in contracts that ensure someone is making, or losing, a bit more than their basic share.

Ask someone later about Blue Oyster Cult's soundalikes and Drexel University's The Swimmers (two stories, although together would be funny).

2009-10-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

Michael Bracy is giving an overview of the policy affecting the music industry in the past decade or so. Then I realize some of these things, that have an incredible impact on today's music industry, happened over a decade ago, before we even listened to music online!

I'm going to paraphrase the four point plan to reform radio/Fixing Radio Agenda he's talking about
1. Holding radio consolidation
2. Expand and strengthen community radio (expand low power radio)
3. End structural payola
4. Public performance right for terrestrial radio (50% of the songs on the radio are over 10 years old, how do we question this in a way that doesn't hurt community radio and small stations

(and now, we're going to talk about broadband)

more on Super Social

2009-10-04T13:55:00.000-04:00

Let me say, so far this Summit has had an amazing balance of presenters and not only audience questions, but genuine audience dialog contributing to the knowledge we're sharing.

Ariel: the mundane to artists might be really interesting to fans "The more I share about my cat the more fans I get."

Ariel's funnel: start with free mp3 or video IN EXCHANGE for email address...99 cent singles> albums> merch> special event> private show> personalized song, with the price going up accordingly. With newsletters and social media as the glue holding it together.

2009-10-04T13:41:00.000-04:00

Ariel Hyatt...differences between typical musicians and expert marketers in using online marketing. #1 your homepage (not MySpace, Facebook etc, YOURS #2 the "Notorious Nine" iLike (video/audio for facebook pages), Ping (consolidates posting to social media sites), Myspace, Reverbnation (widgets and email lists), flickr, facebook, wordpress, twitter, youtube. Charlie McEnerney (well rounded radio chimes in, produce your own professional content, make sure it's not all fan cell phone videos.

The audience says how they got video, everything from $3000 productions to convincing his employer it was promotional for them too, and getting paid.

Ariel plugs the Flip HD video camcorder and/or making slide shows (I suggest animoto, there are others).

Charlie talks about a band moving to Boston and using Twitter successfully as their "mailing list". Feeling of getting a band inviting you to an exclusive event on Facebook.

Ariel talks about fan clubs, especially Prince...exclusive access, special offers, ways to ask for more money from your dedicated fans.

more from reverbnation...

2009-10-04T13:03:00.000-04:00

old model: get signed or get lost: : new model: fan relationships create a value pipeline

2009-10-04T12:59:00.000-04:00

Jed Carlson from ReverbNation.com (or how I listen to the Apples in Stereo at my day job). revenue pie chart/ gigs 35 %, merch 17 %, digital sales 11 %, cds 6 %, royalties 9 %

2009-10-04T12:42:00.000-04:00

terrific handouts summarizing all these digital music services are being passed around. I must figure out how to get copies into YOUR hands, there are dozens that are important and working for musicians. #FMC09

magnatune

2009-10-04T12:38:00.000-04:00

magnatune has a really interesting and straightforward licensing structure for their artists. trade off is artists can't say no. look at it though, it's generating lots of questions and conversation #FMC09

2009-10-04T12:31:00.001-04:00

Kristin Thompson reviews options for digital distribution, check out everywhere you can find Dan Zanes online. #FMC09

2009-10-04T12:28:00.001-04:00

Alex M: Only 5% of musicians have health insurance through their careers as musicians. FMC's HINT can help answer your ?s

2009-10-04T12:09:00.001-04:00

Testing...testing...the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit is about to get underway. fyi laptops outnumber netbooks today.