The Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit 2003

"Now in its third year, the FMC Policy Summit is a forum for musicians, lawyers, academics, policymakers and music industry executives to come together to discuss and debate some of the most contentious issues surrounding digital technology, artists’ rights and the current state of the music industry. Last year’s two-day Policy Summit included keynote speeches from Representative Rick Boucher, Representative John Conyers, California State Senator Kevin Murray, and Napster CEO Konrad Hilbers. Over eighty panelists also participated including Hilary Rosen (RIAA), Amy Ray (Indigo Girls), Ian MacKaye (Fugazi), Jonathan Tasini (National Writers Union), Mark Cuban (Broadcast.com/Dallas Mavericks), Marybeth Peters (US Copyright Office), Peter Jaszi (Professor, American University Washington College of Law), John Simson (SoundExchange), Danny Goldberg (Artemis Records), and Jim Griffin (CEO, Cherry Lane Digital), just to name a few."

The Future of Music Coalition is an attempt to address some of the issues emerging at the intersection of music and technology.  Their Manifesto outlines their three areas of concern:

1. Piracy / Technological Innovation

   The Future of Music Organization is founded on the belief that creation is valuable and should be compensated. Here we are speaking of both musical creation and technological creation. By drawing together advocates for musicians' rights and innovators in Internet technology, we will work to move the discussion away from the narrow privacy vs. piracy discussions that dominate the general media, toward practical solutions leveraging the strengths of digital download technology on behalf of the artists. Our work will encourage the development of innovative Internet music business models to guard the value of musicians' labor and ensure that artists will continue to be paid for their compositions and performances despite drastic changes in methods of distribution.

2. The RIAA's Conflict of Interest

   The Recording Industry Association of America is a special interest group that claims from time to time to lobby on behalf of musicians, but it is funded by, and represents the interests of, the major record companies - the same corporations traditionally known to be the primary exploiters of the musicians that the RIAA claims to represent. The RIAA simply cannot be trusted to serve two distinct masters - the record companies and the artists. An important example is the "work for hire" issue: the RIAA pushed legislation that gives major labels the right to own musicians' master tapes in perpetuity, changing an existing law that allowed some artists to regain the rights to their masters after 35 years. By advocating for this language, even while claiming to have the artists' interests at heart, the RIAA made it clear that it is compromised, and cannot be left to its own devices in the policy-making arena.

   In a more frightening development, the RIAA is attempting to step beyond its traditional lobbying role in order to enter the music-licensing business by collecting and distributing royalties from webcasts. While there is clearly a need for an organization to manage these royalties (webcasting royalties could result in more money than currently collected by BMI and ASCAP combined), the Future of Music has no confidence in the RIAA's ability to represent the voice of musicians or to collect and distribute artists' royalties from the major labels who fund the RIAA.

   The Future of Music therefore advocates for an impartial and accountable organization to guard the value of artists' webcasting royalties. By standing in opposition to the RIAA we hope to give voice to the concerns of musicians who are simply not represented by an organization whose core mission is promotion and protection of the record industry agenda.

3. SDMI

   The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), spearheaded by the RIAA, was an attempt to pull together a limited group of powerful consumer electronics manufacturers; PC manufacturers, and record labels to develop a copyright-enabled alternative to the MP3 format. It is viewed by many as a misguided and desperate scramble by those in the existing music business monopoly to maintain their stranglehold on the channels of distribution through the application of a standardized encryption or watermarking program.

   As with most technologies that are conceived and developed in a no-feedback vacuum, without the desires of potential consumers in mind (not to mention an understanding of the limits of encryption technology), it was destined to fail. As much has been said by Executive Director Leonard Chiariglione, whose comments at the May 2000 SDMI meetings revealed a combination of infighting between competing business interests and fatal flaws in the group's structure, which requires all decisions to be made by consensus. While SDMI members bicker and veto proposals based on the personal financial interests of their multi-national corporations, consumers are presented with narrow, confusing options that alienate them and thus do more to promote piracy, which becomes the only viable mode of digital transfer for the great majority of the world's existing music.

   The Future of Music believes SDMI is a perfect example of what happens when industry attempts to legislate technological advances without the crucial input of musicians and programmers.

Their upcoming Policy Summit in Washington DC will feature keynote speeches by Senator Russ Feingold and Representative Howard Berman and panels on a host of music/technology issues.  Panelists include (but are not limited to)  John Perry Barlow, Doug E Fresh, Ira Glass, John Flansburgh, Joan Jett, Vernon Reid, Patti Smith, and most importantly Mike Dreese - the CEO and co-founder of my favorite music store ever!

Here's what you can do to help.

"viacreativecommons"