The Future of Music Coalition is one of the only groups that can truly claim to work on behalf of musicians. They are holding their annual Future of Music Policy Summit in Montreal from October 5-7, 2006. It’s timed to sync up with Pop Montreal— it should be an excellent location for the conference.
On Friday, Automatic Superstar, the rock musical about a masked rock star who’s record company is trying to kill him, started another run in NYC. You can download free music from the show at the link above.
The show plays every Friday at 8pm. Tickets are available here.
As has been predicted so many times, the internet is both destroying and creating ways of developing and distributing media. The movie industry will probably be the last piece of big media to really feel the effects– it’s difficult and expensive to make a film that looks professional. Equipment and distribution are rapidly dropping in cost, but people are not, and many varieties of feature film require lots and lots and lots of people. (Contrast this with a rock band recording an album, a reporter researching a story, a reality-show on TV, or a cable news report.)
So it’s appropriate that a new project seeking to radically invert the process of developing a big-budget feature film is starting with people. A Swarm of Angels is working to create and distribute a $2 million film over the internet, with the help of 50,000 members that will fund and steer the project. It’s an incredible undertaking, but is off to a roaring start.
You can join the project as one of the first 1,000 people for a membership cost of £25. Not only to you get to support a film revolution, you also get to participate in shaping the script and production process. The best way to get inside the head of the folks behind this project is to start with the Swarm of Angels FAQ.
Senator Orin Hatch may be the single worst politician when it comes to copyright issues. This year there is a campaign to defeat him that could win, and our friends at IPac are leading the charge. Check it out: FireHatch.com.
Recently, the free and open nature of the internet has been under attack from a coalition of phone and cable companies. Now you can fight back, and the person who does the best job gets an iPod nano.
To start, sign the moveon.org petition. Then they’ll send you a link you can forward to friends.
ISPs want to be able to block or slow access to certain websites so they can charge sites for access to their customers. This is extremely dangerous: you don’t want ISPs (a few giant corporations) telling you what sites you can or can’t visit. Watch this video from Public Knowledge for a good explanation of the issue.
The rules are here, and you can see who’s winning here. The contest ends on May 8th, so you’ve got one week.
You might have noticed that we’re participating in the contest too. If we win I think we’ll use the iPod for a Downhill Battle contest.