Future of Music Coalition was founded in 2000 by Jenny Toomey, Kristin Thomson, Michael Bracy, Walter McDonough, and Brian Zisk.
Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson formed the indie rock band Tsunami in 1990 and ran the Arlington, VA-based independent label Simple Machines Records from 1990 to 1998.
While running Simple Machines, Toomey and Thomson published four editions of The Mechanic's Guide, a do-it-yourself manual for the music business.
[3] The Machine ran from 1998 to 2000,[4] and featured interviews with musicians, independent label heads and technologists, including future FMC co-founder Brian Zisk.
[9] He currently serves as a co-founding emeritus member of FMC and is a partner in the government affairs firm Bracy Tucker Brown & Valanzano.
"[15] FMC hosts public events, including the annual Future of Music Policy Summit;[16] conducts original research; submits public comments, documents and testimony to legal proceedings; and organizes advocacy campaigns in an ongoing effort to raise awareness of policy issues in terms of their effect on working musicians and the independent music community.
[17] In 2003, then Executive Director Jenny Toomey testified in front of the Federal Communications Commission about the results of FMC's research on radio consolidation, and its negative impacts on the music community.
[18] In 2009, then Executive Director Jean Cook testified in front of the New York City Council about why net neutrality was important to musicians.
[19] In 2014, then VP for Policy and Education Casey Rae testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the importance of preserving an open internet.
The report, compiled with the help of entertainment industry attorneys, paired potentially problematic contract clauses with "easy-to-understand critiques in the hopes that even those who are completely unfamiliar with the music business can understand the implications that result from signing a standard major label deal.
"[22] Addressing the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit in 2003, then-FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein called the study "truly impressive".
FMC's analysis found that, as of May 8, 2003, "96.8 percent of citizens filing comments opposed changing existing media ownership rules that would pave the way for further consolidation.
"Change That Tune" documents investigations by the New York State Attorney General and the FCC from 2003 to 2007, which uncovered "alarming evidence" that "payola was alive and well in the music and radio industries.”[28] In April 2009, FMC released "Same Old Song", a study of the composition of radio playlists nationwide between the years 2005 and 2008,[29] along with a companion study of playlist composition in the state of New York.
The research includes in-depth interviews with musicians and composers, case studies, and an online survey, open from September 6 to October 28, 2011.
"[38] Founding supporters of the Rock the Net campaign included R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Kronos Quartet, Boots Riley, Ted Leo, OK Go, Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü), Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tigre), Death Cab for Cutie, and Jimmy Tamborello (the Postal Service).
In 2005, FMC began petitioning Congress to establish a public performance right for sound recordings in order to more equitably compensate all participants in the creative process and correct what it views an unnecessary exception within U.S. copyright law.
[45] In addition to a foreclosed revenue stream for artists and the lack of royalty parity for digital platforms, FMC has pointed to the majority of other developed nations with a public performance right for terrestrial radio play as another imbalance.