The Unspoken Code of the Music Blogosphere
How did MP3 blogging become such an integral part of the music community, despite its shady legality? The blogosphere has found a makeshift balance between the web's massive communal archive; the on-demand, curated experience that music listeners crave; and the degree of rule-bending that the music industry will allow (or, in many cases, solicit) in the name of promotion. While music publicists fight for blog coverage, the industry's legal arm usually turns a blind eye. However, those who break the Unspoken Code (i.e. posting a pre-release album in its entirety) will pay the price. Should a public registry be developed? A legit/legal "Blogger's Code?" Or will music in the cloud change the role of the blogger?
Presenters
Jason Sigal manages the Free Music Archive, an online library of Creative Commons mp3s presented by a curatorial consortium. The FMA is spearheaded by WFMU (91.1-FM NY/NJ), the listener-supported independent station where Jason also hosts a weekly radio program. As a musician (Get Him Eat Him, Home Blitz, Lame Drivers) Jason has recorded for several independent labels and toured extensively throughout the US & Canada.
A Los Angeles-based arts and entertainment journalist, Greenwald is a contributing editor at Billboard.com and writes regularly for the Los Angeles Times, GQ.com, the A.V. Club and eMusic, among others. He founded Rawkblog, part of the first wave of mainstream MP3 blogs, in 2005.
Christopher T. Bavitz is Assistant Director of Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, based at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He is also a Lecturer on Law at HLS. Christopher has concentrated his practice on intellectual property and media law, particularly in the areas of music, entertainment, and technology. Prior to joining the Clinic, Christopher served as Senior Director of Legal Affairs for EMI Music North America. From 1998-2002, Christopher was a litigation associate at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and RubinBaum LLP / Rubin Baum Levin Constant & Friedman, where he focused on copyright and trademark matters. Christopher received his B.A., cum laude, from Tufts University in 1995 and his J.D. from University of Michigan Law School in 1998.
Anthony Volodkin created The Hype Machine nearly seven years ago in his dorm room and has been unable to stop thinking about how people discover music ever since. In that time, a small, passionate team has assembled around the product and the Hype Machine now reaches over 2 million people each month out of an office in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
The project has been called a "juggernaut of global influence" by Billboard, and is frequently credited as helping new artists take off by the likes of Foster the People, Chromeo, Skrillex and many others.
Prior to that he spent six years doing IT consulting while constantly carving out evenings to see live music. Anthony was born in Moscow, Russia and has been living in Brooklyn, New York since he was 12.
Saturday, March 17
