In early January, CD Baby announced the launch of yet another fabulous
tool designed to help musicians: Host Baby Wizard. This Wizard
helps musicians create a website, from start to finish, in under an hour. The
Wizard is custom-designed for musicians and allows you to easily include
all the things you’ll need on your website including:
* sound clips (that stream and play immediately, no download needed)
*
concert calendar (auto-updating!)
* links to buy your music on CD Baby,
Tower, iTunes, etc.
* email-list signup
* your news/blog/diary
* your press/reviews
* your bio/story
* photo gallery
* guestbook for fans and friends
It’s free for a month, then $20 a month including hosting
if you decide to stay. Check
it out here.
11.
Event Announcements
Last February, FMC teamed up with Hastings College of Law to organize
a Music Law Summit West. This year, Hastings is doing it again!
On Wednesday, February 26 Hastings Communications/Entertainment Law Journal
(Comm/Ent), the Hastings Association of Communications, Sports and Entertainment
Law, and the Noise Pop Independent Film and Music Festival are doing
a 2005 Digital Entertainment Law Symposium in San Francisco.
Topics include whether there should be limits to online sex and violence,
the reality of online gaming, and issues related to downloading motion
pictures to DVD burners and home theater screens. It’s free
but MCLE credit is also available for practicing attorneys.More
details here
12.
In the Newsstream
GROKSTER, P2P and MUSIC DOWNLOADS
Hollywood Ready for P2P Showdown
Entertainment companies line up allies to support them in the Grokster
case, while peer-to-peer backers say the technology is good for much
more than illicit trading of copyright files.
Wired, January 26, 2005
Conservatives back Hollywood
Movie studios and record labels find unlikely bedfellows in their Supreme
Court fight against file swapping.
By John Borland, CNET, January 24, 2005
Music industry: ‘We’ll make you pay for downloads’
Record labels are at last ready to consider using the Net to deliver
content. The question is—how to make money off it?
By Sylvia Carr, CNET, December 10, 2004
RADIO
Rock, Rolling Over
Just after the New Year, DC’s
alternative rock station WHFS flipped to Spanish programming. Pressured
by other formats and ways of listening, a radio staple is crumbling.
By
Paul Farhi, Washington Post, January 18, 2005
Payola is dead! Now what will we listen to?
"Everyone tolerated payola when you were getting something in return," notes
Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, a
musician advocacy group. "The problem with indie promotion,
combined with increased ownership consolidation and fewer slots on
the radio playlists, was labels were paying more and more money and
not getting anything in return. It became untenable."
By Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, January
6, 2005
You Don’t Know Jack?
Radio, losing a generation of listeners to
music downloading and facing threats from satellite and Internet radio,
is finally starting to fight back. The nation’s biggest radio companies
are responding to a grousing and mercurial audience by cutting the number
of commercials per hour, expanding the range of music played on the air
and experimenting with new formats.
By Marc Fisher, Washington Post, January
2, 2005
Radio stations vow to speed digital moves
Big broadcast giants say they plan to move faster toward Net-like airwaves,
as popularity of satellite radio surges.
By John Borland, CNET, January
5, 2005
COPYRIGHT
Not So Golden Oldies
This month, early recordings by Elvis himself
started to enter Europe’s public domain. Over the next few decades
a torrent of the most popular tracks from the Beatles, the Rolling
Stones and many other artists will become public property in Europe—to
the pleasure of fans and the consternation of the music industry.
The Economist
Print Edition, January 6, 2005
JAZZ and CLASSICAL NEWS
Music Fit for a King, Written for a Dentist
Patronage of the arts in the 21st century
By Anne Midgette, New York Times, January 23, 2005
Top conductor goes it alone after record label pulls plug
Donations from
wealthy backers help pay for recordings of Bach cantatas
Charlotte Higgins,
The Guardian, January 10, 2005
Challenging Routines
Jazz musician Branford Marsalis reflects on sources
of renewal. Jazz has always had a reputation for being able to create
something out of nothing. With improvisation as one of its fundamental
elements, jazz derives its vitality from the idiosyncratic styles of
its interpreters and the passion of its performers.
By Branford Marsalis, The Focus, Current Issue
13.
What We’re Doing
Throughout 2004, FMC engaged in a capacity building process that will help our
organization to focus on our mission and remain an effective voice in the music/technology
community in the coming months and years. As
part of the process, FMC has expanded our Board of Directors to include
two new members, Nicole Vandenberg of Vandenberg Public Relations, and
Farnum Brown of Trillium Asset Management. In
addition, FMC has created an Advisory Board that now includes forty stellar
founding members.We invite you to see our revised
list of Directors and Advisory Board members here.
14. How are we doing?
You can always send an email to suggestions [at] futureofmusic [dot] org with your comments.
Thanks as always,
Jenny Toomey
Michael Bracy
Walter McDonough
Brian Zisk
Kristin Thomson
Peter DiCola
Wendy Harman
Donate to the Future of Music Coalition!
Secure online donations are
accepted at any level at https://www.futureofmusic.org/donate.cfm