Future of Music Coalition

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Future of Music Coalition is a national nonprofit organization that works to ensure a diverse musical culture where artists flourish, are compensated fairly for their work, and where fans can find the music they want. More

FMC on Twitter

Leave it to @NicholsUprising to clearly explain how citizens must take action @FCC #netneutrality http://t.co/tdCROgFKqa @future_of_music

7 hours 49 min ago
.@TheNation picks up our statement, notes that neutrality's not dead yet, if we raise an outcry! http://t.co/tdCROgFKqa

9 hours 5 min ago
@jessevondoom It's a big agency. Some of them are quite delightful! But we're going to have to force Wheeler & co to do the right thing.

9 hours 14 min ago
Here's @SPINmagazine sharing the bad news for musicians about the FCC's "slow lane" proposal http://t.co/SMI3sGmud1

9 hours 33 min ago
This Is What It Sounds Like...When Pigs Fly: Prince reunites with Warner Brothers Records https://t.co/it5EnZVIFN

14 hours 35 min ago
New FCC proposal means a fast lane for well-heeled corporations and a dirt road for everyone else. https://t.co/hIyzTZDueZ

15 hours 18 min ago
Statement on proposed @fcc internet 'slow lane' - http://t.co/deu4tyrpjL #NetNeutrality

17 hours 46 min ago
We've heard the Net Neutrality reports. Statement forthcoming once we've actually read the proposal.

1 day 7 hours ago
Will the Copyright Alert System break the internet?

2 days 12 hours ago
Could Pono be good news for musicians? http://t.co/kLbgh2Rcip

2 days 13 hours ago

FutureBlog

This Is What It Sounds Like When Pigs Fly: Prince Strikes New Deal With Warner Brothers

From explicit lyrics that scandalized Tipper Gore in 1984 to lawsuits against YouTube & The Pirate Bay in 2007, Prince Rogers Nelson has never been afraid of controversy. Last week the genre-defying musician proved once again that he hasn’t run out of ways to shock us: he signed a new deal with Warner Brothers Records. read more

FMC Statement on FCC Plan to Create Internet "Slow Lane"

On Wednesday, April 23, reports indicated that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to significantly modify broadband Internet service and the level playing field it once provided to creators and other entrepreneurs.

When Record Store Day got started in 2008 as a celebration of the culture of independent music retail, it certainly had its fair share of naysayers. “The world has moved on,” they decreed! “Why fetishize the past when you could be embracing the digital future”? At the time, new LP sales in the previous year hovered at a little under a million units. Big box stores and online retail had been causing many beloved local shops to close their doors.

It’s hard to really gauge how much RSD is a direct factor, but by 2013, annual LP sales were up over 600%, topping six million units annually. And that’s a Soundscan figure, so it doesn’t include retailers that don’t report to Soundscan or many DIY mailorder operations. While this certainly hasn’t been enough to offset the decline of CD sales, the repopularization of the vinyl format has been extremely helpful in keeping many indie retailers afloat.

That alone is cause for some serious celebration (and we’ll be in line Saturday morning hoping to score that REM Unplugged 4XLP) but it’s also worth asking what we can learn from this success. Here’s a few ideas:

News broke yesterday that the major labels have filed suit against leading Internet radio service Pandora for playing sound recordings made before February 15, 1972.

This follows a previous suit filed by the recording industry against satellite radio provider Sirius XM, also involving the performances of pre-‘72 recordings.

At FMC we’re all about artists getting paid for the use of their work, particulary when the music is used by large, publicly traded companies. But if the labels are so keen to make sure that performing artists (or their heirs) are being properly compensated, there’s a better way to do it.

Federalize pre-‘72 sound copyrights.

Every rising garage rock band or upstart emcee knows that when you’ve got a bunch of untested new material, one of the smartest things you can do is to load up the van and take your new stuff out on the road to see what the audience thinks.

Well, that’s exactly what the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) are doing. Last year the Internet Task Force at the Dept. of Commerce authored a massive “Green Paper” addressing a wide range of digital copyright issues and asked for public comments. After an initial round of feedback, now they’re taking it on the road, hosting four roundtables around the country for the purpose of soliciting more public feedback to inform the agency’s recommendations. And you’re invited!

Current Features

FMC on Twitter

FutureBlog

This Is What It Sounds Like When Pigs Fly: Prince Strikes New Deal With Warner Brothers

FMC Statement on FCC Plan to Create Internet "Slow Lane"

Four Lessons From Record Store Day

Major Labels vs. Pandora (Or Why We Can't Have Nice Things)

Internet Task Force Plots Summer Tour Dates

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