Future of Music Coalition

Current Features

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization supporting a musical ecosystem where artists flourish and are compensated fairly and transparently for their work.

FMC works with musicians, composers and industry stakeholders to identify solutions to shared challenges. We promote strategies, policies, technologies and educational initiatives that always put artists first while recognizing the role music fans play in shaping the future. FMC works to ensure that diversity, equality and creativity drives artist engagement with the global music community, and that these values are reflected in laws, licenses, and policies that govern any industry that uses music as raw material for its business.

FMC on Twitter

RT @NamesEquipped: I've just stumbled on pictures of Dave Chappelle at the Duke Ellington school: https://t.co/CFjfG9ctKX

2 days 19 hours ago
“I heard on the radio some musicians are live-streaming during the pandemic; have you thought about trying that?”

4 days 14 hours ago
To musicians who are dreading hearing their family members’ unsolicited, well-intentioned, and probably ill-informe… https://t.co/IJa3n7rM4c

4 days 14 hours ago
Spotify’s “discovery mode” is a payola-like program where artists agree to lower pay in exchange for algorithmic bo… https://t.co/JIHwjciNLY

4 days 15 hours ago
@modernsoulrec There are contexts where this could be the case, but it’s hard to see how here. Catalog can be leve… https://t.co/8ubkKnzQ30

4 days 15 hours ago
@SchumakerA And also a portion for whom a better label split would help, but probably wouldn’t be sufficient to address their concerns.

4 days 16 hours ago
@SchumakerA But yes, there’s a portion of the artist community that has focused on better splits from labels to add… https://t.co/Dn8KfEjaDX

4 days 16 hours ago
@SchumakerA Even then, it’s complicated because it’s typically the same royalty rate the label pays for physical re… https://t.co/1I0waMhkOH

4 days 16 hours ago
@SchumakerA That’s also not entirely correct. Big labels get the most plays and thus the most revenues. And the pe… https://t.co/VYs5B4umuD

4 days 16 hours ago
To whatever extent a company uses public-domain works and doesn't have to pay licensing fees, they can use those sa… https://t.co/HRElVleWms

4 days 16 hours ago

FutureBlog

New website coming soon

We’re always looking to create a better future, but as you can see this website is stuck in the past. Our new site is coming very soon—we’re in the processing of archiving our legacy assets and once that’s complete ,we’ll be launching a new mobile-optimized site with information about FMC’s current activities, including recent work on broadcast policy, antitrust, unemployment, health care, and more.

And we’re excited to celebrate 20 years of fighting for musicians!

Policy Priorities for 2019

Happy New Year!

FMC’s preparing to launch a new, mobile-optimized website with a focus on making it easy for musicians and fans to take action. While we’re working to get that up and running, here’s a quick update on what we expect to be tackling in Washington DC in 2019. read more

What’s going on with healthcare, and what does it mean for musicians?

It’s often challenging for musicians to try and keep track of all the policy issues that can potentially impact their lives and livelihoods. In the unprecedented day-to-day chaos and unpredictability of our current unconventional political environment, it can be even harder.

So here’s a quick update on one of the most important issues facing musicians, some questions answered, and some thoughts about what may lie ahead.

by Kevin Erickson, National Organizing Director

On Friday, March 10, 2017, news broke that a band called Soviet Soviet had been barred from entering the US and forced to fly back home, cancelling a US tour that included Austin’s SXSW festival. In the wake of recent controversy about language in SXSW’s performance agreement, the news created a flurry of outrage and panic, and quite a bit of misunderstanding. Here’s our attempt to answer all your questions:

by Kevin Erickson, National Organizing Director

One week before thousands of music/film/technology fans descend on Austin for the annual SXSW festival, controversy has erupted over provisions in the performance agreement required of all artists. On Thursday afternoon, musician Felix Walworth of the band Told Slant tweeted a screenshot of contractual language and the caption, “After looking through this contract sent to me by sxsw I have decided to cancel Told Slant’s performance at the festival.”

Walworth’s tweet quickly went viral, and since then, media outlets picked up the story, and an array of musicians (including some good friends of FMC) escalated the pressure with an open letter demanding that this language be dropped.

We’re still trying to make sense of this story, but here’s some questions and answers.

Current Features

FMC on Twitter

FutureBlog

New website coming soon

Policy Priorities for 2019

What’s going on with healthcare, and what does it mean for musicians?

More immigration confusion as Italian band is denied entry to US

What's The Deal with SXSW's Artist Contract?

Media

Featured Articles

Fact Sheets

Search By Issue