Hello from DC!

I'm here at the Future of Music Coalition's Policy Summit at Georgetown University and have had the opportunity to hear from a number of great folks (Chuck D, Hank Shocklee, Jill Sobule, etc.) on state of popular music culture. This afternoon I'm attending panel on music consumption. Check it out:

Monsters of Data-

For decades, the music industry has relied on a few basic metrics to gauge a band’s popularity and understand career arcs: SoundScan reports, airplay charts, tour grosses. But what happens to our understanding of music’s “value” when it’s possible to collect billions of points of data, online and off? What can massive amounts of traffic and consumption data — from P2Pdownloads to subscription plays, YouTube hits — tell us about where and how people are accessing music? How are we now using this data?  How has it affected musicians’ choices? And have music fans changed their consumption patterns to either protect or reduce their privacy? A panel of data monsters will discuss what billions of data points can tell us about the future of music consumption and access.

danah boyd Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research
Eric Garland Founder/CEO, BigChampagne Media Measurement
Erin McKeown Musician
Tim Quirk Musician; Recovering online music executive
Peter DiCola Assistant Professor, Northwestern School of Law (moderator)

The conference is being streamed from the FMC website. Pop your head in a check it out!