Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and musician Ted Leo helped launch Tuesday (March 27) “Rock the Net,” a new nationwide campaign that aims to sign up artists, music labels, and fans from coast to coast in support of net neutrality.

Rock the Net has already generated an enthusiastic response with nearly 150 musicians and record labels logging on to the campaign web site to become members. The founding artists include R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Death Cab for Cutie, Sarah McLachlan, the Kronos Quartet and Boots Riley of the Coup. Del The Funky Homosapien, Calexico, and The Postal Service have also become members. The campaign is sponsored by the Future of Music Coalition, Noise Pop, and Zeitgeist Artist Management.

In a teleconference announcing the launch, Rep. Markey said Rock the Net would be “invaluable” in helping him get net neutrality legislation passed in Congress. Markey said net neutrality has created an environment that has allowed web businesses to thrive. He said the next generation of Internet innovation would be stunted if the small start-ups don’t have the same access to customers as the established players.

“The wonderful thing about the Internet is that no one has to ask to anyone’s permission to get their voice heard, to launch a service, to communicate with fellow citizens,” Markey said.

Some big telecommunications companies want to charge Internet service providers to have their web sites load faster. Rock the Net believes such a system could freeze out small artists and labels that could not afford to pay such fees. In the end, fans would have fewer choices when it comes to music.

“What we’ve seen is an incredible flowering of independent music’s ability to reach the people who are not just willing, but interested to hear it”” musician Ted Leo said of the Internet. He went on to say: “The specter…of larger content providers shutting out small content providers is not just frightening to me, but seemingly very real.”

Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, said support for net neutrality is strong among musicians.

“Never before have I been doing work with the music community where every single artist we call says, ‘Yes, use my name,’” Toomey said.

Derek Sivers, the founder of independent music distributor CD Baby, said the loss of net neutrality could actually hurt cutting edge music.

“If only the very heavily…sponsored artists are the ones that are allowed to speak on the preferred bandwidths to the world, it will leave the legacy of classic rock only - nothing new. That would be a pretty sad world for musicians,” Sivers said.

Andy Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, said the loss of net neutrality has free speech implications.

“This has got a First Amendment component,” Schwartzman said. “These are artists and people that have political viewpoints that wish to be able to upload without discrimination…The legal considerations really involve people’s right to speak as well as their right to receive information.”

A full MP3 recording of the teleconference is available here. In the coming months, the Rock the Net members will organize to raise awareness of the net neutrality issue. New bands, labels can sign onto the coalition on the Rock the Net web site. Fans can also track Rock the Net artists on an interactive map as they tour the country.

Here’s a complete list of Rock the Net’s founding bands:

R.E.M.
Pearl Jam
Ted Leo
Boots Riley
Barenaked Ladies
Sarah McLachlan
Death Cab for Cutie
OK Go
Bob Mould
Calexico
Kathleen Hanna
The Donnas
Jerry Harrison
John Doe
Les Claypool
Kronos Quartet
Jimmy Tamborello
Street to Nowhere
The Locust
Rogue Wave
Guster
State Radio
Matt Wertz
Griffin House
Matt Nathanson
The Wrens

About Rock the Net Organizers:

Future of Music Coalition

FMC is a national nonprofit education, research and advocacy organization that identifies, examines, interprets and translates the challenging issues at the intersection of music, law, technology and policy. FMC achieves this through continuous interaction with musicians and through collaborations with other creator/citizen groups.

Noise Pop

Dubbed as “San Francisco’s most awesomest annual music festival” by Fader magazine, the Noise Pop Music Festival is a torchbearer of noisy indie pop that has been around for fifteen years. The 2007 Noise Pop, which ran from February 27-March 4, featured performances by Sebadoh, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, John Vanderslice, Jolie Holland, Cake, The Donnas, and many others. The Festival also included a film series, a record fair, and a poster show.

Zeitgeist Artist Management

Formed in 1999, with offices in San Francisco and New York, Zeitgeist focuses on cultivating long-term careers for independently minded artists. The company’s roster includes Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service, Matt Nathanson, Rogue Wave, Smoosh, Feist, Rogue Wave, Street To Nowhere, and producer Jimmy Tamborello and his electronic projects DNTEL and James Figurine.