I’m biased, of course, but I think the album rocks pretty hard. The full line-up will be announced next week, but for now I can tell you that A) it includes several of my personal heroes, B) all the participating artists are alumni of the artist-activism retreats ATC and the Future of Music Coalition have been hosting in New Orleans for the last few years and which I blogged about last March, C) it comes with a booklet featuring artwork by the Mekons’ Jon Langford and some liner notes by yours truly, and D) Wonderlick has a new track on the album.

In March, the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Future of Music Coalition completed an online survey of musicians regarding health insurance. Thirty-three percent of the more than 1,400 who responded were without insurance. By comparison, a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 15 percent of Americans without health insurance in 2009.

It’s impossible to know the exact numbers in Portland, but when Susannah Weaver was asked if she had insurance, her “No” came with an intonation that suggested it was the dumbest question she’d ever been asked.

Google and YouTube would apparently be limited to the ‘public’ internet, and mobile broadband falls outside the purview of the proposal.  Opposing groups immediately questioned whether the private internet would start to crowd an underfunded, ignored public internet. And what does this mean for artists?  Comments are just trickling in, though Future of Music Coalition policy strategist Casey Rae-Hunter pointed to the need for greater regulatory backbone and definition - not a handshake between private companies.  “There is some question about how the so-called ‘public internet’ would continue to grow and develop alongside the ‘additional online services’ hinted at in the proposal,” Rae-Hunter offered.