Common Cause President to Speak at Future of Music Policy Summit

Common Cause President Chellie Pingree is scheduled to speak Monday at a conference on music, artists and technology, addressing the issue of how media consolidation hurts musicians and their fans.

Pingree will participate in the Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington, DC May 2-3, which will look at issues facing musicians and the music/technology industry. More than 70 panelists and 700 participants, including 30 artists, are scheduled to attend the fourth annual conference at George Washington University.

Common Cause has been a leading organization campaigning against media consolidation and relaxed ownership rules passed last year by the Federal Communications Commission. These rules would allow a handful of giant corporations to control most of the nation’s newspapers, radio stations and television stations. Some of those same corporations also control radio play lists, concert venues, ticket sales and billboards, making it difficult for many new artists to break through.

“Artists are expressing their concerns about the compromises they have to make to break through in a hyper consolidated market,” said Pingree. “As the mother of a son who is an aspiring actor and a daughter who is trying to make independent films that express her point of view, I’m concerned about my children and anyone else who wants to work in this business.”

Other panelists include, Seth Hurwitz, owner of the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, Thomas Hazlett, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Wayne Crews, director of Technology Studies at the Cato Institute.

For more information on Common Cause’s campaign against media consolidation, visit www.commoncause.org.

To learn more about the Future of Music Policy Summit, visit

www.futureofmusic.org/events/summit04/.