fair music weblog

After many long months of work, the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit kicked off this morning. FMC Executive Director Jenny Toomey and New Orleans crooner Al “Carnival Time” Johnson got things started. Jenny gave a short intro speech and Al, who lost his home to Katrina, played his powerful lament to the hurricane “Lower Ninth Ward Blues.”

The first panel a “State of the Union” on the music industry, featured musician Bob Mould, entertainment attorney Rosemary Carroll, Nonesuch senior VP David Bither, Superchunk member and co-owner of Merge Records Mac McCaughan, and Chairman and Founder of the Mobile Entertainment Forum of the Americas Ralph Simon. (more…)

Pop star Prince is demanding that video sharing website YouTube removes clips of his recent concerts in London. The singer says he is taking action against the site, and others like it, to “reclaim his art on the internet”.

More than 1,000 unauthorised clips have been taken down in the last few days, according to Web Sheriff, the UK firm he has hired to enforce the ban. The star is also targeting online shops which, he says, infringe his copyright by selling unauthorised merchandise. (more…)

What is fair music about? The fair music video shows you the answer given by people from the music business. Watch and share!

Mute Records is a record label formed in 1978 by Daniel Miller primarily to release his own single “Warm Leatherette”. Mute Records made a name for itself as the label that was willing to sign post-punk artists like Fad Gadget (Frank Tovey’s pseudonym), Einstürzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle, and Cabaret Voltaire. Once electronic music hit the British charts from 1981 onwards, Mute signed artists like Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, Yazoo and Erasure that utilised new technology which would eventually redefine the sound of the dancefloor in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

(more…)

Sony BMG looks set to win unconditional backing from the European Union’s top antitrust regulator for the merger that created the music group more than three years ago. The ruling, which could come as early as this month, would end more than a year of legal uncertainty following a controversial court ruling that annulled the European Commission’s original 2004 decision to clear the deal. (more…)

Speakerheart was built by artists, for artists. It is a music community that was established by a team that exists to aid individual expression of and interaction with digital media for both musical artists and music fans in an increasingly connected yet proprietary world. The primary goal is to create a simple system for artists to promote and sell digital content, and a convenient and interactive method for fans to showcase and recommend the music they love. (more…)