We’re just now recovering from the whirlwind that was last week’s 2011 Future of Music Policy Summit here in Washington, DC. A huge thank you is in order for all the panelists, volunteers, staff and sponsors who helped make this one of our best Summits yet. From Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen flicking guitar picks on an unsuspecting audience member, to heated conversations about blanket licenses and ticketing schemes, to Erin McKeown dropping knowledge about life as an independent creator, we pretty much saw it all. And we’ve got the tweets to prove it — check out #FMC11 to see what people were saying. We hope that you had as much fun as we did getting into the weeds on policy issues, flying at 10,000 feet and shooting the breeze about ideas big and small.

Couldn’t join us in DC for the Summit this year and missed out on the full live webcast? You’re in luck! We’ll be posting the full webcast archives later this month — watch this space for updates.

One of the most buzzed-about Summit sessions was our Tuesday lunchtime workshop on “The Band as a Business.” Presented by Paul Rapp, attorney/musician/community radio leader/writer and Adjunct Professor of Law at Albany Law School, and Marcy Rauer Wagman, managing partner at Wagman Hurwitz & Dickman and Associate Professor at Drexel University, the hour-long workshop was a practical primer on what you need to do to protect what you have, avoid train wrecks and get everything that’s coming to you as a working musician. Marcy and Paul discussed forming a business entity, forming a publishing company, trademarks, copyrights, performing rights organizations and digital aggregators. We’re delighted that Paul and Marcy let us post their “Band as a Business” workshop slides. Check ‘em out! #FMC11