The Daily Swarm

This past Wednesday marked the Future of Music Coalition’s third annual Policy Day, which brought together music policy wonks with an array of music industry professionals including artists, entrepreneurs, and independent label heads to discuss a multitude of legal and technological issues – some incredibly arcane—facing our ailing industry.

“The goal of Policy Day 2009 was to take advantage of the curiosity and interest generated by the recent changes in the policy landscape,” said FMOC spokesperson Casey Rae Hunter, “and to examine what these changes might mean for musicians, artist advocates, fans, entrepreneurs, industry professionals and policymakers.”

Key issues raised at the panels included how the Obama administration will approach intellectual property rights and network neutrality, models for compensating artists for their creative copyright (the Isle of Man’s approach to unlimited downloading and blanket ISP fees was referenced several times), the role of the proposed “Copyright Czar,” and making sure radio honors its obligation to increase independent programming following the payola scandal of 2006–7.

Policy Day’s keynote speaker was Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps who explicitly said he did not support resuscitating the disputed Fairness Doctrine but does believe the government should enforce media diversity and make the airwaves more reflective of the public at large. He also spoke out against the excessive media consolidation of the last two decades and in favor of more government oversight of the nation’s airwaves.

There was noticeable tension on the “Win-Win When? Copyright and Innovation in the Digital Age” panel between YouTube’s Chief Counsel Zahavah Levine and Rick Carnes, the President, Songwriters Guild of America. Carnes took issue with copyright holders not being compensated for work that appears on sites like YouTube, while Zahavah noted how difficult it can be to obtain copyright information.

The term “structural payola,” was invoked to explain how independent music is being denied access to commercial radio programming. Doubts were expressed over whether commercial broadcasters are honoring their commitment to play independent and local programming, which was agreed to following the 2006–2007 payola investigations. The FOMC is currently researching radio playlists to see if the agreements between the major station groups and the independent sector are being honored and figuring out how best to proceed if they are not.

The outspoken Peter Jenner, President Emeritus of the International Music Managers Forum emphasized the importance of making sure up and coming bands hold on to their copyrights, which he believes will give them the ultimate freedom in distributing, promoting, and licensing their work. He also advocates for a music access charge on users ISP bills which would allow for file sharing.

“The most interesting thing we are noticing,” said FMOC spokesperson Casey Rae Hunter, “is that there are so many connecting points between the various issues, from traditional media to copyright and compensation to how broadband deployment and the open internet affect the future of music. The traditional gaps between these different issues are becoming much narrower, and in many cases there is overlap.

“What I took away from Panel Day, ” said Justin Ouellette, a panelist and Muxtape CEO and founder, “is how volatile and complex all this stuff is—there are so many ways it could go. I’m interested in designing sites that can work while they figure all this out. ”

LINKS:
Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Day
Panel Videos