Georgetown Hosts Music Policy Summit
October 9, 2009
October 4-6, 2009, Georgetown hosted the 9th annual Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit. The Future of Music Coalition is a not-for-profit organization that supports artists, managers, entrepreneurs, policy experts and music industry professionals. This year’s policy summit centered on the growing issues of technology and Internet policy in the music industry. 
Georgetown hosted the first annual policy summit in 2001, and is proud to have regularly hosted the event throughout its 8-year history. Professor Anna Celenza, chair of the Department of Performing Arts and music director at Georgetown, was an integral player in this year’s event.
“The Department of Performing Arts is serving as host and co-sponsor of the event,” said Celenza, who helped organize Monday night’s concert with New Orleans brass band Bonerama and served as a moderator on the panel NPR Music: Making Music Matter On-Air and Online. “I worked at NPR before I came to Georgetown,” she noted. “It was great to be able to talk with leaders in the field about the way public radio is reaching out to new audiences via the Web.”
Georgetown’s role as an academic link to the music industry is a key benefit of hosting the event on campus. Celenza is excited about the breadth of the summit participants, including politicians, musicians, producers, lawyers, and broadcasters, who are eager to discuss repercussions of new and evolving technology issues in the music industry. Among the guests Georgetown students and faculty were able to speak with on October 5th included Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Senator Al Franken, D-Minn, and R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills.
“I have learned so much,” said Celenza, “and it's been great to see students there. I'm looking forward to bringing a lot of these discussions into the classroom.”
Some of the policy discussions touched on issues encompassing more than the music industry. In the keynote address on Monday, Franken spoke to one of his principal policy issues in the senate, which is also of vital interest to the music industry: Net neutrality.
“Because the Internet is a platform for speech…and it is neutral…the government has to play a role in keeping it that way,” Franken said.
He is concerned about a potential future of “prioritized Internet” whereby certain consumers can pay for faster Internet, or Internet service providers (ISPs) may determine what content is visible to consumers based on user fees. Franken believes this will not only limit free speech by ISP censorship, but make it much harder for entrepreneurs like musicians to find an outlet and an audience the way they have in today’s Internet landscape.
“As noisy and messy as it may be, the Internet is a democracy.” Franken continued, “Free speech limited or free speech delayed are the same as free speech denied.”
This issue of piracy and breech of copyright is clearly of interest to the music community, and Franken clearly stated that net neutrality must be about protecting legal content. However, Franken is concerned that ISPs should not be able to prioritize information. He fears “a separate but unequal Internet.”
“It does not interfere with free market—it protects free market,” Franken noted as he expounded on the importance of Net neutrality.
Industry leaders from musicians to copyright lawyers, public radio hosts and academics all contributed to a wide range of discussions. Overall, the tone of the summit was uplifting. Bob Boilen, host and creator of NPR’s All Songs Considered, summed up the feeling well: “The future of music is filed with a lot of hope.”
For more information about the Future of Music Coalition and video of the 2009 policy summit keynote speech, click on futureofmusic.org.
(Photo by Caroline "Puck" Deutermann and provided courtesy of the Future of Music Coalition)
