Future of Music Coalition supports equitable and transparent compensation for creators, wherever and however their music is used. We think that artists should have the ability to exploit their copyrights in the ways that make the most sense for them. We believe that artists must have leverage on current and future music platforms. We believe that information about artists revenue streams are best arrived at by asking artists themselves. We support the congressionally-established right for musicians to have their copyrights revert to them after a set term.

This post co-authored by FMC Communications Intern Olivia Brown

The big music biz news this week is all about the launch of Google’s new subscription streaming music service. But that’s not the only development in the world of streaming. Last week, at the annual NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Convention, one of the first such services, Rhapsody,  announced that it would be the first major digital music service to join the Recording Academy’s new “Give Fans The Credit” initiative.  The campaign aims to make songwriter, performer, producer, and other credits widely available to digital music consumers at a time when physical media sales — along with liner notes — are on the wane.

On Thursday, May 16 at 2PM EST, the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet will kickoff its review of current copyright law at a hearing called “A Case Study for Consensus Building: The Copyright Principles Project.” You can watch it live right here. read more

Not long ago, we reported on US Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante’s House Judiciary Committee testimony regarding “the next great copyright act.” Pallante described the need to update our existing laws to make them not only more comprehensible to the average American, but also work better in a rapidly-evolving technological landscape. We thought that her reasoning was sound and that she was focusing on the right areas, including the incredibly complicated licensing environment for music.

Clearly, the commitee was listening. Yesterday, at a Library of Congress event marking World Intellectual Property Day, Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) signaled his intent to review the Copyright Act (which was passed in 1976 and took effect in 1978), with an eye to optimizing the laws to reflect current realities. You can read Goodlatte’s full remarks here. (Self-referential bit — Goodlatte also gave a keynote at the 10th Future of Music Summit.)