CC Global Summit Launches Rebirth of the FMA

I attended the Creative Commons Global Summit this year in my PJ's from the comfort of my Southern California living room and enjoyed every minute. Granted, I had to wake up at 6 in the morning since the Summit was held half way across the globe, but I'm not complaining. With a warm cup of coffee, I took the opportunity to check the pulse #ccmusic, which was especially interesting since the Tribe of Noise relaunched parts of the new Free Music Archive during the summit.  

Yes, the Free Music Archive is back and it's being funded in part by a grant from Grant for the Web, an organization that is interested in funding projects working in the open web space. Quick reminder here, the FMA was acquired by Tribe of Noise last year and they basically put it on ice while they worked on a plan to keep it alive. Until now, we've all been sort of holding our breath to see what would happen to one of #ccmusic's strongest outposts. So, I poured myself another cup of strong coffee, sat back, and watched Hessel Von Gorshot, Meghan Lacle, and Christopher Lawrence guide us into the future of the FMA, the future of music, and how it's tied to fluid data/cash flow.

I'm not going to go too deep into the details here, because you can find out more on the FMA's twitter page. I will say, however, that I was excited by the news and what it might mean for Creative Commons music in the near future. Most of us in this space are familiar with The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and what his work predicted. Well, it seems like we're are fast approaching "music like water" where transactions are fluid and ubiquitous.

In a glass is half full world, this means we'll able to keep the data servers running, offering free music in the #ccmusic cultural domain without ads, without gatekeepers, and without selling out.  

Imaging a world where this is possible is exciting and I loved every minute of it. ccMixter is the place where we not only imagine it, we remix it!    

Thanks CC and everyone who made the summit possible. I think I can speak for all on our team and say, we look forward to participating in the rebirth of the FMA.

Stay Inspired and Keep Creating!

Jason Brock

aka Spinningmerkaba

@jlbrock44