One of the discussions that reached a fever pitch at this year's Summit was focused around Net Neutrality. You've heard me speaking out on this before, asking you to contact your congressperson to ensure the giant ISPs aren't able to pick winners and losers on the internet. We don't need a fast lane for the big companies who can pay more to deliver their content to you at higher speeds. This will be disadvantageous to smaller companies and indie artists who would otherwise benefit from a level playing field on the internet. Over 4 million people made their voices heard during the FCC's Public Comment period, and the FCC has proposed a hybrid solution of sorts. Please take a moment to read about the far-reaching implications of this and get involved here.
It's a bit dismaying to hear some of the same issues discussed at the FMC Summit each year, where no progress has been made. One of these pertains to the problem of metadata in recorded music. Today's music business is all about micropayments - you're WAY more likely to get an aggregate of fractions of cent for streaming on Spotify than you are to get $17 for a physical CD. So it's important that recordings played on the radio, streamed over the internet, and used in other media are accurately identified and tracked, so that the content owners and creators can be paid what they're owed. As metadata evangelist and orator extraordinaire Jim Griffin explained, we have a system for internet domain registration that requires everyone to register their unique domain names. The incentive for companies like Go Daddy to maintain global databases and accurately manage registration data is PROFIT, which is arguably why it works.
We do NOT have such a system for registering musical recordings. There are metadata, such as ISRC codes, that are used to track recordings and allocate payments, but these codes are not across all platforms and there is no globally accessible database in which to store them. The result? Tons of recordings go into a "black box", where royalties are distributed to the larger, more powerful companies, according to their market share I share Jim Griffin's belief that it would be a step towards a more sustainable and thriving musicians' middle class if we could just develop a system to track and pay for all recordings used throughout the world using a common database (or databases) using globally unique identifiers (GUIDs). A very technical subject, but one that impacts the financial stablity of nearly all musicians today. So what can you do? Make sure you report accurate data about your recordings to all of the services you use (e.g. SoundExchange). For more info, check the FMC website for video clips from the Summit as they become available,
Last, but not least, I attended a great panel featuring representatives from the musicians union, among others. I didn't expect it from the title of the session, but this ended up being a great discussion on Fair Trade Music. It was great to find out the unions are no longer dictatorial, rigid organizations that only support their members' activities - they're more collaborative, and want to engage with local initiatives to organize around fair treatment for musicians. I had an opportunity to share the progress we've made with Fair Trade Music DC, and believe that we're ready now to tap into the resources and strength of the AFM as we move forward. For more info on our initiative, click here.
I'll write more on these topics in the coming weeks, but the main takeaway from FMC is that we all need be hyper-aware of the policies and legislation impacting musicians, and organize at the Federal level and in our local communities to fight for a better future for musicians.
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