Statement of Jenny Toomey, Executive Director, Future of Music Coalition

As we have said since the first publication of our manifesto, for the vast majority of independent musicians the Napster question is a red herring:

“In a marketplace where manufacturing and distribution monopolies concentrate the power of over 90% of music sold into the hands of five labels, with huge media mergers continuing to consolidate the decisions of what to play and promote, it becomes more and more difficult for artists to gain exposure through the few remaining coveted radio spots.”

In this environment it is impossible to reduce the value of peer-to-peer file trading to one that is black and white or good and bad. As a organization we have yet to fully support Napster as they have yet to produce a service which both offers the file-trading features its 30 million plus users demand, and also provides a means to compensate the creators and owners of those copyrights. We do, however, believe that Napster was working in good faith to create that service, and have in fact pledged to roll out a business model that would compensate creators this June.

In light of today’s court decision it appears Napster will have many serious impediments to implementing such a business model. This leaves us in a situation that is far less encouraging for both artists and consumers who feel constricted by the status quo pre-Napster.

As we said in our manifesto, “For too long musicians have had too little voice in the manufacture, distribution and promotion of their music on a national and international level and too little means to extract fair support and compensation for their work.” We continue to challenge the music technology community to work in good faith to create new models to accomodate the vast majority of artists who are currently underserved.