The Future of Music Coalition, one of the leading music policy advocates in Washington, held its fourteenth annual Policy Summit at Georgetown University on October 27 and 28. The Summit featured a variety of panels geared toward musicians, agents, managers, promoters, and lawyers alike.
The first panel of the two-day event included representatives from several technology companies/startups in the music industry space. KC Fox from Eventbrite described the company’s ticketing and registration platform and its new “Neon” mobile application. Ben Brannen of AtVenu provided insight into the company’s analytics software for merchandise sales, offering a solution to the age-old question of how much merchandise a band should bring on tour. Looplabs, a cloud-based digital audio workstation founded by Craig Swann, was self-proclaimed as a hybrid of YouTube and GarageBand. Swann pointed out some of the company’s aspirations, including monetizing derivative works produced by fans on the platform. Randy Nichols, a consultant for Bandsintown, explained how promoters and labels have sought out the company for the purpose of targeting campaigns to particular fans. And perhaps the most fascinating of them all, SoundScry was portrayed as a means of revolutionizing the music industry by creating a way by which third parties can invest in (and thus take equity in) a musical act, through a streamlined process akin to crowdfunding.
Following that panel, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn offered some prepared remarks, with a disclaimer indicating her reluctance to speak on certain issues. However, she did articulate the importance of a free and open Internet, broadband Internet expansion, and competition in the marketplace, with specific reference to the wireless spectrum and looming mergers. With regard to net neutrality, she stated that “the policy” is her priority, and that the legal framework must be shaped around that policy, leading to a conversation about the Section 706 versus Title II debate. A poignant question was asked at the end of the panel regarding the discrepancy between independent album sales and their disproportionate transmission via broadcast radio, to which Commissioner Clyburn pointed out the surge in LPFM licensing, inferring that such radio stations would likely transmit independent music at a greater rate than, say, iHeart Media-owned stations.
A spotlight session on music royalties offered some insight into the complicated world of performance rights organizations, publishers, record labels, and other stakeholders. In attendance were representatives from BMI, SoundExchange, and the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Fund, who gave a rundown on the royalties they administer, their reciprocal agreements with foreign PROs, and metadata concerns, among other things.
Metadata seemed to be a recurring theme at the conference, as digital music consumption continues to rise and be a growing revenue stream for artists. So naturally, the “Metadata for Musicians” workshops were highly sought-after, and in fact received rave reviews from conference attendees. Metadata, the information that describes and identifies one’s music, has become key to the discovery, attribution, and monetization of one’s music.
Day two got off to an interesting start with a panel comprised of four entertainment lawyers—two private practice transactional lawyers, one private practice litigator, and a public interest lawyer/professor. The discussion commenced with more talk of royalties and the labels’ attempts to use traditional models in accounting for streaming revenues, with some speculation as to what the deals looked like behind-the-scenes between the interactive streaming services and the major labels vis-à-vis the licensing of catalogs. The lawyers then appealed to the artists and their management in attendance by stressing the importance of auditing record labels in order to receive fair compensation, and by pointing out the important distinction between at-source earnings and receipts earnings when negotiating record deals. And in between these discussions were a smattering of conversations around copyright law, in an appeal to those in the crowd unfamiliar with the difference between musical works and sound recordings, and Section 115’s provisions on “mechanicals.”
In the afternoon, there were two panels that touched on the communications industry. The first focused on monopolies in music and media, with a discussion of the history of competition policy and antitrust law. The second concentrated on the net neutrality debate. During that panel, an interesting point was made about the net neutrality debate in Washington: that no one in their right mind is expressly against it, but that service providers that stand to lose from regulation are looking for ways to have the FCC promulgate rules that are unenforceable, or without the necessary protections that supporters of an open Internet seek.
The Summit ended on a more casual and jovial note with an NPR listening party at the Gibson Guitar Showroom in Chinatown. Attendees were given placards and asked to hold up a number, one through ten, based on their assessment of new and unreleased music. Those with opinions unlike the majority of attendees were then put on the spot and asked by host Bob Boilen to explain themselves over-the-air.
All in all, this year’s Future of Music Policy Summit was an informative, thought-provoking experience. A big thank you to Casey Rae and the Future of Music Coalition staff for bringing together people from all corners of the industry to engage in a lively discussion on the future of an industry that in very much in a transitory phase of its life.
