Supporters of low-power FM (LPFM) radio won a victory on Friday when a federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit to stop the Federal Communications Commissions from protecting LPFM stations from full power station signal interference.

“Musicians Bringing Musicians Home V” is the celebratory and fundraising finale of the fifth three-day activist retreat hosted by Air Traffic Control and Future of Music Coalition since the Gulf Coast storms of 2005. Artists from around the country converge on New Orleans to tour affected neighborhoods, visit with the city’s notable musicians and community leaders and participate in strategy sessions about how to integrate activism and philanthropy into their musical lives and careers.

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) has conducted an analysis of radio airplay over the past four years to determine whether anything has really changed since April 2007, when the FCC issued consent decrees to the nation?s four largest broadcasters in response to payola allegations. Using playlist data from Mediaguide, calculated the airplay share for five different categories of record labels to determine whether the ratio of major label to non-major label airplay has changed over the past four years. Based on this data, the FMC reported “almost no measurable change” in station playlist composition over the past four years.

Future of Music Coalition fondly remembers the promises of four big radio companies caught in the Spitzer payola trap to increase their broadcast of independently-produced music. But it doesn?t see it happening. […]

[…] To refresh your memory, basically the “big 4” had to pay millions in fines and work with the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) to draft a plan allowing significantly more unsigned and indie label music spins. So what were the results? Practically nothing has changed!