In October 2007, several developments occurred that have had lingering effects on the music industry over the last decade. Radiohead pioneered the surprise album drop, with the pay-what-you-want online release of In Rainbows. “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” topped the charts, becoming one of the first viral sensations to do so. And a host of musicians—including R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Kathleen Hanna, and Death Cab for Cutie—launched a new campaign in defense of an abstract idea with potentially huge implications for digital music: net neutrality.
The cause simply asks that all online data be treated equally. What this means for listeners is that broadband internet providers can’t divide the web into fast and slow lanes. User design aside, you can access music via niche-oriented sites like Bandcamp as efficiently as you can via Apple or YouTube, those deep-pocketed tech giants. As OK Go frontman Damian Kulash testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2008, “There really is some consensus here that net neutrality is good for music and good for musicians.”
After a courtroom defeat and a lengthyrulemakingbattle, these musicians finally celebrated victory in 2015, when the Federal Communications Commission approved regulations that effectively ensured net neutrality’s survival. The new rules treat internet service as a public utility, like landline phones. That means if, say, Verizon wanted to give Spotify better bandwidth for an extra fee, it couldn’t. Beyond music, AT&T can’t slow down Skype on your phone, while Comcast can’t mess up your Netflix to make you buy cable. All speech transmitted over the internet has to be given a level playing field. Last year, a federal appeals court all but cemented the win for net neutrality when it upheld the FCC’s rules.
You can see where this is going, right? The music community has understandably been distracted by more pressing concerns since President Trump’s election last November, whether becoming politically involved or donating to anti-Trump causes, defending their healthcare or marching on Washington, simply getting into the country or preserving public funding for the arts. But the clock has quietly gotten turned back, and artists or listeners who want an open internet may soon have to speak out to protect it once again.
Trump has notoriously left many administration jobs unfilled, but he wasted no time appointing Ajit Pai, a former Verizon attorney, as FCC chairman shortly after taking office. As one of the telecommunications regulator’s Republican commissioners since 2012, Pai had long opposed the regulations he is now responsible for either upholding or killing. And as expected, Pai unveiled his initial blueprint for rolling back net neutrality late last month, basically trusting broadband companies to do what’s best for consumers—a comforting idea for anyone who’s had the pleasure of enduring most of these companies’ customer service approaches. Out of a convenient capitalist belief that regulation is inherently harmful, the interests of internet service providers will, ahem, trump what artists and labels have been fighting for since George W. Bush was in office.
Pai’s plan for reversing the Obama-era net neutrality rules, which he has given the Orwellian name “Restoring Internet Freedom,” has already spurred almost 1 million comments on the FCC website. Helping lead the uproar, as he did three years ago with a segment gone viral, was John Oliver, who returned to the issue in the latest episode of his HBO show, “Last Week Tonight.” And just like in 2014, so many people tried to contact the FCC after Oliver’s segment that the website crashed. There’ve been reports that pro-industry spammers added to the traffic overload, but the point remains: Voicing concerns about some websites no longer working normally caused… a website not to work normally.
Musicians may not have joined the latest fray yet publicly, but they’ve grown more and more outspoken in support of net neutrality over the last decade. Two years ago, when the FCC’s controversial chairman Tom Wheeler—a former lobbyist for the cable companies—relented on earlier plans in favor of tough net neutrality rules, those applauding included tUnE-yArDs, the Magnetic Fields, Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, Speedy Ortiz, Damon & Naomi, Downtown Boys, and a whole lot more.
The Future of Music Coalition, which advocates for musicians, has been pushing for net neutrality since the beginning and kicked off the 2007 artist-led campaign, Rock the Net (such innocent times!). “Pai still has a chance to do the right thing, leave net neutrality alone, and end this attack on independent music,” says Kevin Erickson, the coalition’s national organizing director. “In the coming weeks and months, musicians, independent labels, and, we suspect, a whole lot of music listeners will be filing official comments urging him to do just that.”
The larger industry’s view on the issue is still developing. A2IM, a trade group representing indie labels, commended the 2015 vote but hasn’t decided whether it will file an official comment on Pai’s plan. “We need to be extremely careful about anything that could potentially result in some form of censorship or limitation of freedom of speech,” says A2IM president Richard Burgess, who incidentally programmed the pioneering synth on Kate Bush’s Never for Ever. “The proposed plan has huge amounts of potential for unintended consequences.” In other words, Pai’s proposal could squelch freedom of speech, and should be considered cautiously.
The RIAA, which represents the major labels, declined to comment for this story, but when the trade group last spoke out on the issue, in 2010, its focus was more on permitting internet service providers to stamp out illegal file-sharing. On the streaming side, Greg Barnes of DiMA (Pandora, Spotify, Apple, and more) says the trade group isn’t necessarily opposed to undoing the rule that treats broadband internet as a utility service, but music fans should still have unbiased access to whatever streaming service they want.
Anyone upset about the implications of the FCC’s latest plans will have plenty of chances to make their voices heard (you know, when the website actually works). A vote is set for the FCC’s open meeting on May 18. The regulator is expected to keep taking comments until July 17. People would then be able to reply to those comments until August 16. The FCC would then have to put together and vote on a final set of rules, which might be a months-long process. From there, any FCC order overturning net neutrality would almost certainly end up in court. But the ultimate power lies with Congress, as dysfunctional as it has been lately. For whatever it’s worth, a 2015 poll by the University of Delaware found majorities of both Republicans and Democrats supported net neutrality.
Three years ago, everyone from Michael Stipe to Neko Case to director Oliver Stone signed a letter calling for strong net neutrality rules. “The internet has enabled artists to connect directly with each other and with audiences,” they wrote. “It has eliminated the barriers of geography and taken collaborations to new levels. And it has allowed people—not corporations—to seek out the film, music, and art that moves them.” Like so many other noble values that were at least paid lip service across party lines until Trump, his administration apparently opposes this sentiment. Can FCC chair Pai be moved?