Today, FMC released a new 150-page report that shows radio ownership consolidation at the national and local levels has led to fewer choices in radio programming and harmed the listening public and those working in the music and media industries, including DJs, programmers and musicians.

The report, titled "False Premises, False Promises: A Quantitative History of Ownership Consolidation in the Radio Industry" uses industry data spanning almost two decades to analyze the impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and related FCC regulations on the radio industry. The report was written by FMC Research Director Peter DiCola, who also co-authored FMC’s groundbreaking 2002 report "Radio Deregulation: Has It Served Citizens and Musicians?"

Executive summary and full report will be available at 12 noon EST on Wednesday, December 13 here: http://www.futureofmusic.org/research/radiostudy06.cfm

Key findings in "False Premises" include:

• The top four radio station owners have almost half of the listeners and the top ten owners have almost two-thirds of listeners.
• Across 155 markets, radio listenership has declined over the past fourteen years, a 22% drop since its peak in 1989.
• The “localness” of radio ownership – ownership by individuals living in the community — has declined between 1975 and 2005 by almost one-third.
• Just fifteen formats make up three-quarters of all commercial programming. Moreover, radio formats with different names can overlap up to 80% in terms of the songs played on them.
• Niche musical formats like Classical, Jazz, Americana, Bluegrass, New Rock, and Folk, where they exist, are provided almost exclusively by smaller station groups.

When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the radio industry changed drastically. Historical data included in this report shows that the Telecom Act has backfired in terms of the FCC’s goals of competition, localism, and diversity in radio. Commercial radio now offers musicians fewer opportunities to get airtime and offers the public a narrow set of overlapping and homogenized programming formats.

FMC will be submitting this report to the FCC as a comment in their current Media Ownership proceeding, and delivering copies to key members of Congress. In the previous Congress, leadership of the Commerce committees in both houses was very aggressive in both pushing very troublesome legislation and encouraging the FCC to relax longstanding media ownership limits. We hope the new leadership will be more vocal in support of existing media ownership rules. The emergence of strong congressional oversight of the FCC will be a major new dynamic in media ownership policies for 2007.

On Monday, December 11, FMC Executive Director Jenny Toomey joined an esteemed panel of musicians, songwriters and radio personalities to testify at a formal FCC hearing on media ownership issues in Nashville, TN. Jenny (in an Opryland sandwich in the bottom row of the photo at left between Porter Wagoner and George Jones) was eager to talk about the results of FMC’s new comprehensive study of the impact of radio consolidation on musicians and music fans.

Here’s a link to Jenny’s testimony

In addition to Jenny, the commissioners heard from legendary country musicians Big and Rich, George Jones, Porter Wagoner, Naomi Judd, Dobie Gray, Craig Wiseman, and other members of the Nashville music community. The commissioners also listened to comments from dozens of citizens that packed Belmont University’s 1,000-seat Massey Concert Hall.

This hearing is the second of six official hearings announced by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin as part of its 2006 media ownership proceeding, during which the FCC is debating additional regulatory changes related to radio, TV and newspaper ownership. A number of official and unofficial public hearings are being held across the country, providing a unique opportunity to tell the FCC what you think. Official hearings are listed here: http://www.fcc.gov/ownership/hearings.html

The public has also been invited to submit written comments in this proceeding. The FCC deadline for reply comments ends on December 21. If you haven’t done so already, we strongly urge you to make your voice heard.

To electronically submit short comments of up to a few paragraphs in Docket 06-121: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/ecfs/Upload/

To electronically submit longer comments in Docket 06-121:http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi

FCC Media Ownership Hearing in Los Angeles, October 3, 2006
Testimony by Mike Mills of R.E.M., FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Mark Cooper of Consumer Federation for America.
Audio clips
Press clips

Hollywood to FCC: TV Hurt by Consolidation
It’s not only musicians that are hurt by media consolidation, but the television industry as well.
Carl DiOrio, Hollywood Reporter, October 4, 2006

Town Hall Meeting with the FCC on Diversity and Ownership of the Media
Testimony by M-1 of Dead Prez
New York, October 19, 2006

In October 2006 we organized our Sixth Annual Future of Music Policy Summit in Montreal, in partnership with McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and Pop Montreal where, over the course of three days, 120 panelists debated the issues that are emerging as music promotion and distribution moves to a global, digital platform.

During the Summit, over 550 participants witnessed engaging panel discussions about international copyright issues, digital music licensing, DRM/interoperability, the effect of government funding on artists’ careers, how orchestras are navigating change, and the Québécois music industry. Participants also attended special sessions on audio fidelity and compression, preservation and storage, recommendation engines, international touring/visas, visual remixing, and music in games/Second Life. We also worked with Pop Montreal to program musician-focused sessions on the changing definition of "indie", independent media, DIY online distribution, and publishing for artists.

For everyone that’s been waiting patiently, webcasts and podcasts are up and ready to be accessed! Just click on the link below and find the panel you’re interested in. We, too, are looking forward to catching up on the panels we missed in the fantastic frenzy!

Links to webcasts and podcasts
Press coverage
Facts about FMC’s Sixth Annual Policy Summit

Thanks again to our wonderful hosts at McGill, to our Pop Montreal partners, to all our sponsors, our generous panelists, and to all the attendees for making it such a smashing success.

It was just over a year ago that Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. Of particular concern for many of us in the music community was its impact on New Orleans’ irreplaceable musical community.

From November 3-6, FMC assembled a diverse group of acclaimed activist musicians - Steve Earle, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Allison Moorer, Tom Morello (Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine), Boots Riley (the Coup), and Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney) - for a three-day stint of meetings and tours of the city. There they saw, first-hand, the widespread damage wrought by Katrina, and the inspiring work of the Arabi Wrecking Krewe, a group of volunteers that have gutted, clear and repaired nearly a 100 damaged homes of local New Orleans musicians, free of charge.

In support of the rebuilding of the music community, FMC also organized a benefit show called Musicians Bringing Musicians Home: A Benefit for Arabi Wrecking Krewe, New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and Tipitina’s Foundation. The show included individual and collaborative performances by all the visiting musicians, legacy artists, and local musicians, including the trombone collective Bonerama.

Big Names Play for a Big Cause
New Orleans Times Picayune, November 6, 2006

Corin Tucker, Mike Mills Play Future of Music Benefit
So do Steve Earle, Tom Morello, Allison Moorer, the Coup’s Boots Riley
Pitchfork Media, October 26, 2006

See more press and details about the event here:
http://www.futureofmusic.org/events/past.cfm

Future of Music Coalition is proud to partner with Chamber Music America for CMA’s 29th National Conference, which will take place at the Westin New York at Times Square January 11-14, 2007. The 2007 Conference theme is HARMONIC CONVERGENCE: Community in a Diverse World, and FMC and CMA are partnering to present a pre-conference seminar called The Digital Marketing Primer on Thursday, January 11, 2007. This full-day interactive seminar navigates you through the rich and varied cultural options available to you on the world wide web – from myspace to rhapsody to live365 – and offers a practical how-to approach to improving, establishing, and increasing your presence online, and on the radio.

Registration at the CMA conference is NOT necessary to attend the Digital Marketing Primer. For pricing and registration visit http://www.chamber-music.org/register/.

Learn more about the conference here: http://www.chamber-music.org/events/

Attention Musicians! FMC is offering a limited number of FREE musician scholarships to this event (registration fees waived, no travel stipend). For more information, email jean [at] futureofmusic [dot] org">Jean.

In November, FMC hosted a screening of the documentary "Before the Music Dies" at Busboys & Poets in Washington, D.C. The film is an in-depth look at the mainstream music industry today, particularly questioning why "mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation." With interviews from a range of artists, including Erykah Badu, Dave Matthews, Les Paul, Questlove of The Roots, and FMC’s own Jenny Toomey, the film is an excellent primer on the obstacles that musicians face in today’s consolidated mainstream music industry.

Rather than opting for a traditional release, "Before the Music Dies" is being promoted at a grassroots level, with people hosting screenings of the film across the country. FMC encourages you to host a screening of the movie in your region, whether it’s in your living room, the coffee house on the corner, or the art house theater in your town. Find out more about "Before the Music Dies" and how you can host a screening at http://www.beforethemusicdies.com

Labels Seek Lower Royalty Rate
Record labels are asking a panel of copyright judges to lower the rate they pay music publishers and songwriters.
Brooks Boliek, The Hollywood Reporter, December 1, 2006

Jay-Z Versus the Sample Troll: The Shady One-Man Corporation That’s Destroying Hip-Hop
The recent legal maneuverings of Bridgeport Music illuminate how copyright laws can be used to the detriment of creativity and just how easy it would be to act against a catalog company masquerading as a sample troll.
Tim Wu, Slate.com, November 16, 2006

‘My Sharona’ Creators Sue Yahoo, Apple, Amazon and Run DMC for Copyright Infringement
Rock band The Knack has sued several online music distributors, including Yahoo, Amazon and Apple, for distributing copies of Run DMC’s song "It’s Tricky," which contains an unauthorized sample of The Knack’s "My Sharona."
Steve Bryant, eWeek.com.weblog, October 4, 2006

Fit to Print: The Top Censored News Stories of 2005-2006
Sonoma State University’s Project Censored releases its annual list of the most important news stories NOT covered by the corporate media in the United States. As a reader of this newsletter, you’ve no doubt heard about #1 on the list (net neutrality), but did you know about the other nine?
Peter Phillips, Trish Boreta and Project Censored, MetroActive, November 8, 2006

Stealing Fair Use, Selling It Back to You
In Paramount v. Load-N-Go, Hollywood studios are claiming that it’s illegal to rip a DVD to put on a personal video player, even if you own the DVD.
, Fred von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 30, 2006

Music Keeps Satellite Radio in Orbit, Survey Finds
A recent study of satellite radio subscribers and potential subscribers shows that music — not big name celebrities, sports or talk radio — is what attracts listeners to those services and keeps them subscribing.
SoundExchange, Yahoo Finance, November 10, 2006

You can always send an email to suggestions [at] futureofmusic [dot] org">suggestions [at] futureofmusic [dot] org with your comments.

Thanks as always,
Jenny Toomey
Michael Bracy
Walter McDonough
Brian Zisk
Kristin Thomson
Peter DiCola
Jean Cook
Rachel Kramer
Chhaya Kapadia