Music and Network Neutrality, artists and musicians voice their opinions on proposed FCC rules
Paul Wright, lead singer and guitarist for Rootdown, takes a photo on his iPhone during a concert at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. The band will post the photo to their facebook page and allow fans to "tag" or label themselves in the image.
“Musicians need the Internet like oxygen, you can’t really do anything now without it,” says Casey Rae-Hunter, Communications Director for the Future of Music Coalition in Washington, D.C.
The Internet has become a tool of innovation for musicians over the past decade. With digital music sales growing from just 20 Million dollars in 2003 to 4.2 Billion dollars in 2009, musicians have been able to deliver their music to your ears at a lower cost than ever before and independent musicians especially are able to deliver content right next to their biggest influences and biggest competitors.
Much of this growth has been spurred on from the little known and truly vague set of voluntary principles known as Network Neutrality, the idea that Internet users should be able to access any web content and applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by their Internet Service Provider (ISP).
These principles have been voluntary since their inception by the Federal Communication Commission in 2005 as part of a broadband deployment policy statement. In October of 2009, under new leadership appointed by President Barack Obama, the FCC proposed a set of rules that would make the voluntary guidelines law. This new set of rules establishes the Internet as not just a tool but a piece of the American infrastructure.
The Internet, born to be open and free for all users, is a tightly controlled network of wires and servers owned by a small handful of companies – Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint just to name a few. These companies have made it their mission to provide access to a vast amount of information, from basics like email to more complex streaming high definition television shows and even more complex bit-torrent files, many of which contain illegal content.
Content is where the music industry has been the most involved. According the International Foundation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA) overall music market has actually decreased by negative 30% while overall albums sold has risen nearly 940%.
But these figures represent the major recording industry and they are using them to argue that the new rules would open the floodgates for piracy, the act of illegally downloading music siding with ISP’s as opponents to the rules since the ISP’s are the gatekeepers that control and have the ability to censor content.
What the figures do not represent is the legions of independent musicians that because of Network Neutrality have flourished without the need to sign contracts with a major recording label, but instead doing much of the footwork themselves or through the help of an agent.
Examples of these new business models can be found all over the Internet. Rootdown is a band from Corvallis, Oregon that has seen success from their ability to connect with fans and sell their music the same way they would if they were on a major label thanks to many free or cheap services that allow them to do so.
“We will tweet out ‘two tickets under the name Charles Barkley,’ sometimes before shows for anyone that wants to come to a show for free,” says Rootdown bassist Jackson Michelson.
Twitter.com is just one of many places where the band has built their fan base. Just starting out the band decided that instead of selling their first album they would give it away for free. They were able to launch a website and a free MySpace page to promote the album and within just a few months were able to build a list of over 15,000 email addresses.
The band has come to rely on services like Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and many more online tools to build their business in a way that has brought them airplay on national radio stations and brought thousands of people to concerts all across the United States.
Rootdown has used the Internet to level the playing field, it has become their “oxygen,” and a big reason for this is because the Internet as it is right now is free and open.
These models encourage a relationship with fans to connect with artists through social networking. Network Neutrality has allowed for this innovation to happen. But according to FMC and organizations like Free Press it could all come to an end.
“Without these principles we would be sent into the dark-ages,” says Rae-Hunter. “If Internet Service Providers are allowed to charge what they want and send people to whatever websites they want, the user may never realize it, but independent content providers would be devastated.”
The Internet is becoming a strong competitor in the content delivery market. It is slowly replacing cable television with services like Hulu and Fancast bringing on demand television content in High Definition and rapidly replacing how we get our music with music discover sites like Pandora and Last.Fm.
User-ship in the United States encompasses 74% of the population, and those are only users with high-speed or broadband access. Those numbers are only sure to grow too, with the recent delivery of a National Broadband Plan to Congress by the FCC meant to speed up and spread broadband Internet to those that do and don’t have access.
These principles are at risk though; the Telecommunications industry is quietly pouring millions of dollars into Washington to waiver their opinion that the rules are unnecessary.
“Tell me exactly what it means and what problem we’re solving that requires an act of government,” says Comcast CEO Brian Roberts during an interview with Jon Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit, an internet conference held annually in San Francisco, CA. “The idea that we’re not going to have an open Internet is just not realistic.”
The rules don’t make everyone happy though. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, is fighting to change the Network Neutrality rules to not include what they are calling “a loophole for copyright enforcement.”
This is seen as a loophole because it give a green light to ISP’s, allowing them the ability to slow down or cut-off traffic based on its content, not making network neutrality completely neutral. But for musicians and artists that are represented by FMC, this “loophole” is there protection against those that would seek to illegally share their intellectual property.
Network Neutrality is an issue that is still in development as rules and laws are passed in Washington. But what will never come into question is the fact that the Internet has provided a way for musicians to become the artists that they want to be, no longer is there a need to lose the rights to your music for the sake of making a living.
