Which Way to the Moveable Feast?: Music 2.0

Many of us have had the experience of going to a conference at which you end up in a cramped, fluorescently lit room for a panel discussion. And just when the introductions are finally over, the audience all caught up on the issues to be discussed, and everyone is finally positioned to dig into the topic at hand…um, time’s up, thank you all for coming.

This is how I felt after reading the highly publicized “Music Copyright in the Digital Age” position paper recently released by ASCAP. (You can get your own free copy here. It’s all legal, no worries.) To be clear, I’m no “trash copyright; information wants to be free” naïf, but the paper underlined for me once again how seriously far behind the technology we trail as an industry in terms of legal and economic development. The paper’s position–after 21 pages of material–was a whopping:

Amid the many “shades of grey” of the copyright debates, it is important to remember that some issues remain black and white… Discussions about how copyright should adapt and evolve along with our changing society are both important and productive–as long as these essential truths are not overlooked in the process.

Well, huzzah! Let’s have a good talk. And then maybe a good cry. I don’t mean to pick on ASCAP–it’s an issue that goes far beyond a single organization, and ASCAP actually won a major online performance issue in court today–but this paper was nowhere near the public leap forward I was hoping for. Where are the new practical and clearly defined rules for licensing creative work in digital formats? There aren’t even any preferred proposals for such a scheme that would benefit music creators on view here. Perhaps that was just not within the purview of this paper. And admittedly, many cooks in the kitchen and a roster of unknown unknowns have made it paralyzingly difficult–the proverbial herding of feral cats and four large elephants. Yet, in an addenda to the position paper, we read:

While copyright law can be difficult to understand, its complexity does not render it invalid. “Simpler” does not equal “better”–particularly when it comes to protecting long established rights that make creative professions viable in a financially driven culture.

I’m not a lawyer, just a professional working in the field, but I don’t buy that. I think complexity is a big stumbling block in getting artists paid. If it was easier, couldn’t we be paying them by now? Is this waiting helping the situation? Can technology, if not the law, help us make it easier? Also, I am unconvinced that if it was easier to pay for the online usage of music, most people would avoid doing so. We could fill up gallon jugs of water at the local public fountain, but we don’t. In my experience, the true problem outside of the notorious pot-smoking, dorm-room downloaders (see how dangerous a stereotype can be?) is that your average person can’t figure out what’s legal or who to pay (let alone negotiate the “how much”) without hiring a legal team and a couple of research assistants–not something available to the average non-profit performing ensemble that just wants to make a YouTube video to promote its shows. New amateur broadcasters using Live365 pay their dues every day because it’s a package deal. Just print, sign, and send, and you are good to go. The machine makes sure what you are doing is legal. But if you’re building podcasts in the basement or adding content to your digital player, the technology lets you do a lot with a few mouse clicks. But following the rules and paying the artists? Well, remember the last time you called the IRS with a question? Just multiply.

Alongside my ASCAP reading, I was working my way through another hot document on the issue–Gerd Leonhard’s Music 2.0. (Download a copy here.) In 200+ pages largely culled from his blog postings, Leonhard outlines a “music like water” profit scheme that would turn music access into a service that “feels like free” rather than focus on collecting a fee for copies. (Technological developments being basically the equivalent of one huge Xerox machine, that counter is spun out and broken.) But was his proposed alternative reality too good to be true? If he had the answers, why wasn’t anyone doing anything like this? I got to ask him these questions and more in an interview a few days later. You can eavesdrop on our conversation here.

The very next day, as these things seem to go in internet land, the topic was everywhere I looked and the options and arguments multiplied. What if the major labels end up holding the reigns, or what if Apple does? If you’re hooked, dig in. More it to be found on Slate and Hypebot.