FMC staff are currently grabbing some much-needed R&R following another epic and awesome conference. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do a quick recap!

We’d like to thank each and everyone of you who attended the 10th Anniversary Future of Music Policy Summit or watched the live webcast. You truly helped make this our best event to date. So give yourselves one more round of applause!

For those who weren’t there, you missed a doozy. Musicians, managers, policymakers, artist advocates, media gurus, legal eagles, industry honchos, tech wizards and more invaded Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. to share their ideas and persepctives for music, culture commerce in our increasingly networked world. We also rocked out really hard.

Here’s some highlights (we’ll be posting more soon):

Keynotes from Rocco Landesman (Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts) and Victoria Espinel (U.S.Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator) shone light on how the nation’s top public officials approach policymaking for the cultural sector.
 
Espinel highlighted her work in coordinating intellectual property enforcement across government agencies and regulatory bodies. “My job is to protect the creativity of U.S. citizens,” Espinel said, adding that “the protection of innovation… and creativity is essential for economic recovery.”
 
Landesman suggested that music and the arts are key to American cultural and economic health. “The arts are natural aggregators for creativity and innovation,” he said, noting that “any solution to the recession must include the arts.”
 
Other highlights included a conversation between legendary producer/musician T Bone Burnett and Chicago Tribune music scribe Greg Kot that lit up the Twitterverse. T Bone focused on both the decrease of audio quality in the digital age, as well as the lack of time today’s musicians have to focus on their craft. “A transistor radio sounds better than an iPod,” he said, while advising musicians to “stay completely away from the internet; have nothing to do with it.” Some people praised T Bone’s contrarian stance, while others bristled at his suggestion that the internet is mostly crap. In other words, it was classic Policy Summit.
 
On the other side of the spectrum was Peter Jenner, a former manager of Pink Floyd who currently reps Billy Bragg. Jenner spoke passionately about “music in the cloud,” suggesting that music access through online services can coexist comfortably with “physical artifacts,” so long as the legal digital offerings include “all music from all cultures; billions of tracks.” Peter is always a Policy Summit fave, mostly because he’s AWESOME. We told Peter that next year we’d lower him from the ceiling in a white throne. He told us that he’d prefer to be carried onstage in a sedia gestatoria. We’ll start taking volunteers for palm frond-wavers shortly.
 
The independent sector was also heard from, with Jesse von Doom of CASH Music putting the economic difficulties facing today’s music entrepreneurs in clear perspective. “Bands that are not U2 living in some mansion made of cotton candy are having a hard time,” he said in a presentation and reaction panel that also featured representatives from Facebook, YouTube and Nielsen Entertainment. The reaction panel had some real geniuses on it, too: Bryan Calhoun from SoundExchange, Emily Whitesmith from Whitesmith Entertainment, musician/audio editor Rebecca Gates and Dick Huey of Toolshed Media Marketing all kept it real with comments and suggestions.
 
Damian Kulash of newly-independent rockers OK Go, talked with NPR’s Neda Ulaby about how industry gatekeepers aren’t in tune with his band. Some at major record labels, he said, “don’t understand that market scarcity doesn’t apply to the internet,” while telling the story of when “someone in Capitol’s digital marketing department watched [the band’s homemade video] and his exact words were, ‘If this gets out, you’re sunk.’” That little clip went on to become a viral web sensation and the homemade followup scored OK Go a Grammy!
 
Several conversations at Summit10 included moments of guarded optimism about the future. Music fans “have never been more engaged,” according to Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Entertainment, a sentiment echoed by other speakers and presenters. See, people can play nice.
 
Eddie Schwartz, president of the Songwriters Association of Canada, suggested that a punitive approach to music consumption is not in the industry’s best interest. “The last thing we need is more sticks” to beat down file sharers, Schwartz offered. “We need to find legal ways to file-share.” Hey, as long as artists get paid.
 
We know we’re missing, like, a hundred mentions. The full list of presenters and panelists can be seen here. And why not leave YOUR favorite Summit10 memories in the comments?

It wasn’t all lofty industry and wonk-talk. Sunday, October 3 was musicians’ day, with presentations and practical discussions on subjects ranging from fan analytics to direct-to-consumer case studies to the possible impact of health care reform on musicians.
 
We also partied! Attendees got to revel with other music lovers at the Dear New Orleans benefit show at Black Cat, which took place on Monday, Oct. 4. The all-star concert featured Big Easy brass band Bonerama with Damian Kulash of OK Go, Erin McKeown, Jill Sobule, Jenny Toomey & Franklin Bruno, Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad), Jonny 5 of Flobots, Tim Quirk of Wonderlick and Too Much Joy, Rebecca Gates, Mariam Adam and more paying tribute to New Orleans musical culture.
 
A highlight of the concert came when Mike Mills of R.E.M. hopped onstage with Kulash, Bonerama, Shocklee, Jonny 5, Jenny Toomey and others to perform an impassioned cover of CSNY’s “Ohio.”
 
The concert showcased several of the artists who contributed to the critically-acclaimed compilation, Dear New Orleans — a benefit album produced by Air Traffic Control to mark the fifth anniversary of Katrina and the floods.

Video of the 10th Anniversary Future of Music Policy Summit will archived online very soon!
 
Select press:

National Journal’s DailyTechDose

Chicago Tribune  I, I

Washington City Paper

TBD.com  I, II

Digital Music News I, II

Thanks again for making this such a spectacular event. And thanks to Georgetown for having us!

[Mike Mills rocks it at the Dear New Orleans benefit concert; photo by Caroline Deutermann]