There was so much great stuff at this year’s Future of Music Policy Summit, it’s hard to pick which bits to tell you about. We want to say thanks to the 500 registered attendees, and the thousands of people who watched the programming via a live webcast from web.illish.us. Then there’s the bloggers, tweeters and dreamers who helped make this year’s Summit a viral spectacular. Here’s some evidence of the general awesomeness of the event.

Key Policymakers
FMC was honored to welcome Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Mike Doyle and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to Gaston Hall for newsmaking speeches and conversations. Franken cracked wise about this “new band” R.E.M. before launching into a thoughtful and sensible speech about why he supported net neutrality. After his remarks, he sat with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills for a Q&A, which ranged from health care to why he felt compelled to run for public office after the death of his colleague Paul Wellstone in 2002.
C-SPAN was onsite to film Senator Al Franken’s keynote and discussion with Mike Mills of R.E.M., as well as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s keynote. Unfortunately, the segment is no longer available on the C-SPAN site, but here’s a clip of the Senator’s appearance (starts at 3:42).

Amazing Panels
On Monday, the panels covered everything from new business models to network privacy. Greg Kot led the way with a forward-thinking discussion about how artists and indie labels are embracing technology and change. Then the conversation turned the complexities and unresolved issues associated with the sample license clearance process. Perhaps the most memorable moment happened on an afternoon panel when Rhapsody’s Tim Quirk held up his iPhone and explained that Rhapsody had been forced to get a separate license from content owners to push music into its iPhone app, despite the fact that they already had a license for making music available on mobile devices. When the RIAA’s Steve Marks responded, “Well, maybe you should’ve negotiated a better deal to start with,” there were audible gasps in the audience.
The “most engaging panelist” award goes to manager extraordinaire Peter Jenner, who was an equal opportunity critic, with sharp words for the RIAA, Google, even the Department of Justice!

Musicians and Attendees Supporting Sweet Home New Orleans
As part of the programming, FMC and Air Traffic Control worked together to organize “Musicians Bringing Musicians Home” – a benefit concert that took place at Rock and Roll Hotel on the night of October 5. With the amazing New Orleans trombone band Bonerama holding it all together in front of a packed and boisterous house, special musical guests Martin Perna, Erin McKeown, Nicole Atkins, Wayne Kramer and Mike Mills each took their turns on stage. Until you’ve heard Nicole do “When the Levee Breaks” or MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams” with three trombones, you haven’t fully lived.
Here’s some pics from the show.
Breakouts: Completely Packed
On Tuesday afternoon, attendees and panelists left Gaston Hall and headed over to the Georgetown Conference Center for two rounds of breakouts. The most popular breakouts? The conversation about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was standing room only (remember, this is DC), and every seat was full for the boisterous session on the Future of Music Journalism.
Summit liveblog
Read a handy play-by-play of the entire Summit right here (thanks to Courtney Bennett for her tireless posting).
Some other great blog coverage from attendees:
Paul Rapp/Rapp on This • George Howard/9 Giant Steps •
Brian McTear/Weathervane (3 days worth) • Hypebot
Photos
Our wonderful photographer, Caroline Deutermann, snapped tons of shots of this year’s event.
Got your own photos from the event? Upload them to Flickr and tag them FMC09.
Video archives
The web.illish.us multimedia team was onsite live webcasting all of the conversations in Gaston Hall. They have now compiled some of the “greatest hits” from the Summit webcasts, which was watched by over 9,000 unique viewers.
Audio-visual mashup artist Mike Relm showed us how he does his thing, then sat down for a conversation with Urb Magazine founder Raymond Roker.
Brian Message, who is part of Radiohead’s management team, sat down for a discussion about artist empowerment in the digital age with WIRED correspondent Eliot Van Buskirk.
Closing Town Hall with musicians Nicole Atkins, Vijay Iyer, Erin McKeown, Martin Perna and FMC.
Media coverage
But you don’t have to take our words for it: here’s some of what the press have to say about the Policy Summit. (And stay tuned for a Summit-themed episode of NPR’s “On the Media.”)
FCC Chairman Uses Springsteen Titles to Explain Internet Policy
Rolling Stone, October 6, 2009
D.C. Summit asks: Who will save music?
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 11, 2009
Future of Music: Spotify’s imminent arrival could boost legit digital market
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 6, 2009
Future of Music: Sen. Al Franken weighs in on net neutrality
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 5, 2009
Future of music: FCC faces challenge to reconcile Internet access, artists rights
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 5, 2009
Future of Music Summit: 115,000 albums and only 110 ‘hits’
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 4, 2009
FCC Chairman Channels Springsteen to Explain Internet Policy
Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2009
Future of Music Policy Summit Comes to Town
Washington Post, October 2, 2009
Franken can’t resist high-tech humor
Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 5, 2009
Franken Stumps For Network Neutrality
Broadcasting & Cable, October 5, 2009
Selling CDs No Way to Make a Living
CNET, October 7, 2009
Who was there?
497 registered attendees represented a robust cross section of musicians, technologists, educators, policymakers and attorneys:
Musician/Songwriters: 22%
Student/Educator: 22%
Nonprofit/Advocates: 10%
Lawyers: 9%
Tech/Internet industry: 6%
Journalists: 5%
Label/Entertainment Ind: 5%
Government: 3%
Entrepreneur: 3%
Manager/Promoter: 3%
Other: 3%
Studio Engineer: 2%
Music fans: 1%
Evaluations
Attendees gave the event high marks. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, the summary totals were:
“I found this event valuable” 4.7/5.0
“I thought it was well organized” 4.6/5.0
“The event addressed important topics” 4.8/5.0
“The event met my expectations” 4.6/5.0
Attendees: if you didn’t fill out an evaluation onsite, click here to fill it out online.
Shout outs
“While I’m typically not real big on conferences, I can enthusiastically recommend this one. The values of the conference and the caliber of speakers/workshops makes this - in my mind - the go-to conference. Get yourself registered for 2010 asap.” – George Howard, manager for Carly Simon and entrepreneur
“Expectations far surpassed. Loved it. It was great!” – conference attendee
“Thank you for an awesome conference.” – conference attendee
Thanks again to all panelists, attendees, volunteers and sponsors who made this event such a huge success. We’re already planning for 2010, so stay tuned!