Future of Music Coalition

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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

This thread got kinda long, but there's a lot of details worth understanding. https://t.co/2SgeSYqNuK

2 days 8 hours ago
@boiseTJK lol, would it help to know it was mostly a David Rakoff reference? https://t.co/WOOrDpfM8a

2 days 12 hours ago
@BeGrody Agreed, planning to get the new site up this month.

2 days 12 hours ago
@dada_drummer This is a helpful article that lays out ways that the victory artists won in the ways Soundexchange w… https://t.co/ZLUboGiEXz

2 days 12 hours ago
@dada_drummer Mostly right now, the artist side of most those deals at least continues to flow through SX, presumab… https://t.co/a4IW4zpcRY

2 days 12 hours ago
@dada_drummer but an increased volume of royalties over the years, including Sirius XM have been processed through… https://t.co/2oRNBIluQn

2 days 12 hours ago
@dada_drummer There's no way for this not to sound pedantic, but this is an important complication: royalties colle… https://t.co/lZ62tuMFX9

2 days 12 hours ago
But we should also be clear-eyed about the limits of that kind of approach; eg Bandcamp doesn't pay backing musicia… https://t.co/bj4XHsvb8b

2 days 13 hours ago
For example, part of how Bandcamp has differentiated itself in the music marketplace is by deliberately not using p… https://t.co/GTtTWuR8Q6

2 days 13 hours ago
It's also worth remembering that all of these systems were constructed through business and public policy choices,… https://t.co/RAheODDADt

2 days 14 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?

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