Future of Music Coalition

Current Features

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization supporting a musical ecosystem where artists flourish and are compensated fairly and transparently for their work.

FMC works with musicians, composers and industry stakeholders to identify solutions to shared challenges. We promote strategies, policies, technologies and educational initiatives that always put artists first while recognizing the role music fans play in shaping the future. FMC works to ensure that diversity, equality and creativity drives artist engagement with the global music community, and that these values are reflected in laws, licenses, and policies that govern any industry that uses music as raw material for its business.

FMC on Twitter

Think you know how money flows in the music business? Take our quiz and find out! https://t.co/76TLlarJH9

4 hours 45 min ago
California court rules that remastering a song can reset its copyright. What can this mean for musicians? https://t.co/xwroLopyLw

6 hours 35 min ago
Thank you @Punknews for your support of #fairplayfairpay and for the mention! https://t.co/Y9enwkohlP

9 hours 30 min ago
For musicians, much of their work is both invisible and without compensation. https://t.co/BK6cPyDBST

1 day 6 hours ago
RT @RadioSurvivor: Our @SpinningIndie goes behind the scenes at new #LPFM community radio station @TakomaRadio for station tour 103. https:…

1 day 7 hours ago
ICYMI: We support industry-wide efforts to improve metadata management... https://t.co/Q45UpqoUXX

1 day 9 hours ago
Need to catch up with what's going on in Congress? Our Legislation Tracker can help! https://t.co/ASG5YAuGhY

1 day 10 hours ago
RT @edri: #zerorating: Why it is dangerous for our rights and freedoms https://t.co/ipeMeLryup #NetNeutrality #SaveTheInternet https://t.co…

4 days 1 hour ago
Sad to hear Bernie Worrell has left us. Have a funky dance party this weekend in his honor.

4 days 1 hour ago
Happy new release Friday! What's in your record bag today?

4 days 5 hours ago

FutureBlog

Everything Old Is New Again? Court Rules Remastering Resets Copyright

by Harrison Speck, Policy Fellow read more

All of the Problems with the Spotify/NMPA Settlement

In December of 2015, musician and songwriter David Lowery filed a class action lawsuit against Spotify over unpaid mechanical royalties.

Though mechanical royalties are covered by a compulsory license, Lowery argues that Spotify did not live up to the terms of that license, failing both to inform him of the use of his music or to pay the government-set royalty required by federal statue. For its part, Spotify claims that it never intentionally played music without compensating songwriters and publishers, but was sometimes unable to determine what parties to pay.

Three months later, Spotify announced that it had reached a “landmark” deal with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA)—the trade industry group representing the interests of many publishers—would see the service paying $30 million dollars in unpaid royalties and damges. The two sides then wasted no time contacting songwriters and publishers to ask that they sign on to the deal.

However, this agreement has turned out to be anything but a slam dunk for the two sides, with its terms generating immediate criticism from a number of songwriters and independent publishers. Some of the strongest pushback came from Lowery himself, who when presented with the opportunity to settle, balked at the offer on his blog.

Nevertheless, songwriters and publishers have to decide whether or not to join this settlement (and waive their rights to join the other class action lawsuits against Spotify). Unfortunately, the concerns over the settlement are very serious and worth pondering before signing your name on the dotted line (or Survey Monkey form).

As such, here are the key concerns that are raised by the settlement and what they mean to those considering signing on.

Whenever YouTube describes its efforts to fight back against copyright infringement and discourage misuse, it’s always quick to point to its Content ID system.

Content ID is the system, first rolled out in 2008 and extended to music in 2010, through which rightsholders are able to upload their content to a database that YouTube then uses to match against works uploaded to the site by third-party users. When the system detects a match, the rightsholder can then choose what to do with it, including simply tracking the content, monetizing the claim or, if desired, blocking the video outright. read more

Congratulations to Alison Wenham, Global Independent Music Leader

FMC extends congratulations to Alison Wenham on her new position as the Chief Executive of the World Independent Network (WIN), a UK-based organization that helps the global independent music sector respond to the the challenges and opportunities of today’s industry. read more

Moral Rights for Musicians: A Primer

In the United States, most copyright law deals exclusively with “economic rights”, or rights associated with the money and the economic value of creative work. These rights are incredibly important as they allow creators to prevent others copying/distributing their works, making new works based upon their creation and publicly performing it without a license.

These rights are why rightsholders can sue to block unlicensed CDs from being printed and why songs can’t be covered without a license fee to the songwriter.

But money isn’t everything. Elsewhere in the world, creators may enjoy a separate set of rights known as “moral rights.” The term comes from the French language and might actually be better translated as “personality rights”; this set of rights ensures that artists are able to protect their reputation by ensuring that they receive attribution when their work is used and that they can object to uses that they see as harmful to their name.