Episode 226 - Interview With Kevin Erickson

Kevin Erickson is the director of the Future of Music Coalition, a Washington DC-based nonprofit supporting a musical ecosystem where artists flourish and are compensated fairly and transparently for their work. FMC works with musicians, composers and industry stakeholders to identify solutions and promote strategies, policies, technologies and educational initiatives that always put artists first while recognizing the role music fans play in shaping the future. In February of this year during a livestream for Blizzcon, Metallica was erroneously censored by Twitch for copyright infringement while performing their own song. This triggered an onslaught of media attention about the nature of censorship, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Metallica’s decades long fixture in the conversation dating back to they infamous public battle with file-sharing company Napster. In this episode, we sat down with Kevin to get to the bottom of all these issues. We discuss the work being done by the Future of Music Coalition, copyright issues in the modern age, the Twitch controversy, Metallica vs. Napster, clearing up common and pervasive misconceptions and the best ways to support the music you love ethically and responsibly. Fair compensation and transparency for musicians and artists is a deeply personal issue to us as it directly affects our livelihoods. Every day, year in and year out, we see personally and within our community here in Nashville the consequences of how misinformation and apathy surrounding these issues allows large corporations to undervalue and undermine our work. Fascinatingly, Metallica is a thread that has run through these conversations for over two decades. We hope you enjoy this conversation and consider supporting and/or getting involved with The Future of Music Coalition.