My wife Mary and I headed back to Washington, DC earlier this month to take part in the Future of Music Policy Summit. It is one of the most cutting edge music business brainstorming sessions on the planet, where independents and corporate types from the four corners of the music community come to share their respective visions on the next steps for our industry. Areas covered ranged from the latest direct-to-fan marketing models to serious technology and intellectual property issues. As a bonus, you get to actually talk to folks like TBone Burnett (producer) and Mary Beth Peters (Head of the US Copyright Office) at the same event…how cool is that! This year’s summit had the first panel I have ever seen at a national music conference on artist funding, an increasingly crucial but often overlooked area on how the heck an artist can raise funds for recording, touring, promotion, etc. in this new DIY world; I was joined on that panel by some very innovative folks including Benji Rogers, who founded the fan-based funding site - www.pledgemusic.com. These fan-funded financing models have been evolving for several years and now seem to be gaining serious traction, including collaborations with labels. Also on the panel was Brian McTear, who founded Weathervane, www.weathervanemusic.org, a hybrid model that combines non-profit funding sources, i.e. grants/donations and traditional "for-profit" revenue streams. Other highlights included a very enjoyable Pho dinner at Nam Viet with a full house of conference attendees and the pleasure of meeting one of the smartest technology guys on the music business planet, Jim Griffin of OneHouse, www.onehouse.com. Jim was very articulate on two of the key issues discussed at the conference - the inevitable shift from distribution (of individual units of music) to delivery (streaming) as the cornerstone of the music biz 2.0 model and the creation of a national artist registry. Kudos to Lissa Rosenthal, Executive Director of Future of Music Coalition and the rest of the FMC team for hosting an incredibly enlightening and enjoyable conference, www.futureofmusic.org. I sincerely encourage everyone to put it on your calendar for next year…you won’t be disappointed!
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Keep it in the groove,
Eli Ball
Founder
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