The following post was written by Audrey Harrer, the Associate Creative Director of Online Learning Media. Audrey is a multimedia producer and studied composition and film scoring here at Berklee. Her work is experimental, and she is particularly interested in the space where music and drama collide.
Where are you allowed to perform music and dance? What is your music worth? How loud is too loud?
Policies are what define these things. They can be government policies, school policies, or just the rules around your house. Policies are laws, guidelines, or methods of practice that guide our principles and behaviors. In modern society, we live in a matrix of policies that define everything from our food and shelter, to our art.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit 2012 in Washington DC. It was a densely packed day of influential presenters, from Sen. Ron Weyden of Oregon to Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs, discussing, sharing and debating the issues of today’s musicians. Topics explored included the Internet Radio Fairness Act, artist compensation, and online music technologies. The Future of Music Coalition focuses on “education, research and advocacy for musicians,” and it works to affect government and industry policies in a positive way on musicians’ behalf. A major sentiment that echoed throughout the Summit was that more musicians need to be involved in policy making.