The 2009 Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. is now underway. I'll be there for the entirety, to report back as events unfold. I'm covering it for the day job (I proposed an article on it to the powers-that-be, and they said yes) and I'll be blogging about it here as well.
Today's highlights included Michael Bracy, co-founder and policy director of the Future of Music Coalition, and co-owner of the ultra-hip Austin-based indie record label Misra, speaking about the need to end "structural payola" in commercial radio. Long story short, this institutionalized payola system has long ensured that independent and local artists (who are so low on the radar that commercial radio station owners don't even bother trying to manipulate them in back-door dealings) face insurmountable obstacles trying to get their music on the corporate airwaves. Supposedly, station owners are working to honor a commitment to change their ways, but change, as always, appears to be slow in coming.
On the digital front, Bracy spoke about the importance of the internet for independent and local musicians and the steps needed to create what he called a "legitimized commercial digital marketplace." These include opening up broadband access and ensuring net neutrality, whereby internet and broadband providers wouldn't be able to make exclusive arrangements with companies that would direct consumers to certain marketplace sites and block access to others. In other words, the goal is to prevent a few multibillion-dollar corporations from controlling the digital music sphere the same way they control the radio waves.
Heady stuff. A lot to take in. More tomorrow, including a keynote discussion with Sen. Al Franken and Mike Mills of R.E.M.
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