Jenny Toomey
After a week of sleep and accounting post- policy conference Jenny
hopped a jet to the MIDEM music conference at Cannes where she delivered
a message of hope and action to the heads of many independent artist
and label organizations. In a series of meetings with international
managers, label heads and activists she has begun the tough work of
taking the FMC agenda international. This is critical as the mainstream
music and technology press heavily influences many international groups’
understanding of American music/technology issues. Upon returning
Jenny has been meeting with artists groups, congressional staffers,
foundation heads and FMC board members to begin working on FMC’s goal
to unite the 98% percent of musicians that are not currently served
by the traditional music business models and to get them to educate
themselves and take action in their own self-interest. Check out the
webcast
of Jenny’s opening remarks from the FMC policy conference for
more info on the FMC agenda.
Michael Bracy
As the inauguration is finally finished and the transition of power
begins to settle down, Michael is keeping a close eye on those rising
to positions of power in the Bush Administration and new Congressional
committee chairs to divine what it all means for artists. An immediate
priority is the Low Power Radio Initiative, which was severely gutted
by a congressional rider the day before Christmas. Michael is working
to ensure the 600 or so rural stations still permitted under the new
rules get on the air in a timely manner, and he is helping to facilitate
the testing process and technical report that will be submitted to
Congress by the FCC.
FMC is also working our way through key offices on the hill, introducing
our agenda to staff who clearly appreciate brainstorming on issues
like LPFM, digital royalty, media consolidation and, of course, Napster.
We will continue our basic educational work throughout the spring,
including alerting members and staff to the web archive of the Future
of Music Summit.
Brian Zisk
After moderating the Open Source panel at the FMC Policy Conference
(webcast)
Brian fell into a deep, feverish sleep. Rumor is that he’s now kicking
around some tropical locale, plotting and planning how he can best
amplify the Future of Music Coalition and what he can do to help ensure
a reasonable compensation flow to the creators, while at the same
time working to ensure the public the best listening experience they
can possibly have.
Walter McDonough
Walter McDonough would like to thank the attorneys and academics who
contributed their time, energy and perspective to the conference.
The conference would not have been such a success without you. Although
he has still not had an opportunity to thank everyone individually,
you are all invited to visit him this summer at Fenway Park. Since
returning to Boston, Walter has been working on three major research
projects in conjunction with attorneys, law professors and law students
in the United States and Europe.
The first is a survey of the proposed EC Copyright Directive and
the recent WIPO conference on trademark and copyright jurisdictional
issues. Another important undertaking is focused on the impact of
Digital Performance Royalties for Sound Recordings on hip hop and
electronic music. Finally, he is continuing his research on the history
of compulsory licenses in the twentieth century. Anyone who has any
pertinent ideas, research materials or sports observations is invited
to contact Walter at digitalmusiclaw [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Kristin Thomson
After the Policy Conference, Kristin returned to the University of
Delaware where she applied for and received a Fellowship that will
support her masters thesis work on the social, political and economic
reactions to emerging technologies. Some of this research and writing
will appear in educational articles that she’ll be posting on the
web within the next few months. Also, as recently named Director of
Community Development, Kristin will be engaging in outreach to musicians
and record labels.
Peter DiCola
Peter has been continuing his research on the distribution of income
among musicians, specifically examining the market forces that cause
a few musicians to earn a great deal while the vast majority of musicians
do not. In addition, he has been investigating the aspects of the
"new economy" that may be making the situation better or
worse for musicians.