Defending Net Neutrality--Hundreds of Musicians and Labels Sign Statement

As the FCC prepares to vote on Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to repeal net neutrality rules, a growing list of musicians including Neko CaseKiller Mike, and My Morning Jacket and independent labels like Sub PopThird Man Records, Topshelf Records and many more have weighed in with an unequivocal defense of net neutrality.

The statement, which was also signed by members of FugaziNeutral Milk HotelWilco and Bikini Killwas organized by nonprofit organizations Future of Music Coalition and CASH Music.

Other artist signatories included: R.E.M., Allison Mossheart of The Kills & Dead Weather, Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, Kronos Quartet, Deerhoof, DJ Spooky, Downtown Boys, and many more.

Other label signatories include Captured Tracks, Bloodshot RecordsPolyvinyl Records, Secretly GroupPartisan RecordsMerge RecordsDon GiovanniThirsty Ear and the American Association of Independent Music, the trade organization representing independent labels in the United States.

The full list of signatories and the text of the letter is below. It is also available atmusicforahealthyinternet.org, where artists and fans alike can access a call tool to contact their congressional representatives and make their voices heard.

As musicians, composers, producers, and independent labels representing diverse backgrounds, traditions, genres, and communities, we urge the Federal Communications Commission to protect the open internet as a vehicle for free expression and collaboration.

We've built careers and big parts of our lives around our passion for music -- creating it and connecting with listeners. Today, the internet is one of the primary places this work happens.  We rely on it for everything from booking tours to selling merchandise, to collaborating with musicians on the other side of the globe. The fundamental principle of openness online has enabled artists to connect directly with each other and with audiences, empowering us to distribute our work and reach fans in a multiplicity of ways. At its best, the open internet has allowed for a flourishing of diverse voices, allowing to compete alongside the biggest companies, creating connections across geographic barriers, offering choice, flexibility, and creative autonomy.

To truly make good on the remarkable democratic potential of the internet, the fundamental infrastructure underpinning it all must be neutral and nondiscriminatory. Unfortunately, the FCC's current proposal would amount to a sharp turn in the opposite direction. It would allow big cable and wireless companies to create new pay-to-play fast lanes, disadvantaging those who cannot pay for preferential treatment, and replicating the industry's past problems with payola. Allowing broadband providers to control this once-open platform shifts leverage away from individual artists, creators, and small businesses, and interferes with freedom of speech and expression.

The implications for free expression also extend to digital service providers. Without strong net neutrality protections, digital retailers will have to compete to better meet the needs of the ISPs that can block, throttle, or slow down access to their offerings. These services should instead be competing to better serve the needs of diverse musicians and listeners. Artists and labels' choices about how and where to bring their work to the market could likewise be constrained by what the ISPs prefer, rather than what works best for their individual business and creative goals.

Of course, network neutrality alone is not sufficient to ensure a healthy internet, where free expression thrives, creative labor is fairly compensated, consumer privacy is respected, and diverse voices can reach audiences. But it is a necessary foundation for fair competition.

We urge the FCC to sustain the existing, strong net neutrality rules, based on Title II of the Communications Act. The FCC should maintain bright line rules against blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization on both fixed and mobile connections, as well as maintaining ongoing oversight of other types of discrimination.

Musicians

18th & Addison

Aabaraki

Aaron Wagner

Adron

Afi Scruggs

AJ Pantaleo

Alan Epstein

Alec Ounsworth (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)

Alison Mosshart (The Kills, The Dead Weather)

Allan Wilson (!!!, Secret Drum Band)

Alot Alot

Amanda Palmer

American Lions

Amy Klein

Andrew Adkins

Anna Altman

Antibalas

Antietam

Apostle of Solitude

Arthur Noll

Arrington de Dionyso

Asa Horvitz

Auburn X

BATHS

Beauty Pill

Bedroom Hijinks

Betsy Ganz

Black Belt Eagle Scout

Blue Lotus

Bob D’Amico (Sebadoh, Fiery Furnaces)

Bottle Caps For Dollars

Bound by Entrails

Braille Stars

Brave New Girl

Brendan Canty

Brent Knopf (Ramona Falls, Menomena, Eyelids)

Brian Henneman, Bottle Rockets

Brodie Jenkins (Cathedrals)

Bryan Divisions

Bucket

Bunny’s A Swine

Calamity Jane

Califone

Cheer-Accident

Ché Aimee Dorval

Chris Faroe

Citizen Ten

Craig Finn (The Hold Steady)

Cuddle Formation

Cumulus

Cursive

Dagan Thogerson (Murder by Death)

Dan Friel (Parts & Labor, Upper Wilds)

Daniel Wagner

Daniel Wander

Dark Rodeo

Darrell Westrick

Dave Easley

Dave Narcizo (Throwing Muses)

David Bazan

David Poe

David Rosane & the Zookeepers

Deborah Crooks

Declan Zapala

Deerhoof

Delerium Tremors

Dennis Driscoll

Denver Meatpacking Company

Dethrone the Deceiver

Devin Gallagher (Typhoon, Ghosties)

DJ Spooky

Dogleg

dominoThief

Downtown Boys

Dubais

Dubistry

Dude York

Earth

Eli Janney

Elijah

Eluvium

EMA

Emily Reo

Enablers

Erin McKeown

Erocka Kwal

Flash Car

Fred Thomas

Flobots

Franz Nicolay

GRYPT

GWAR

Gabriel Teodros

Gaian Heart Tribe

Gas Hound

Glassmen

Golden Hour

Good Shade

Harry & The Potters

Hazel

Hazel Atlas

Helen Kellers Ukulele

Helen Kelter Skelter

Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst

HousePlant

Hurry Up

Ian MacKaye

Iji

Insect Ark

Iron Curtain

It Keeps Snowing

J Shogren

Jace Clayton

James Radcliffe

James William Roy

Jane Don’t

Jarboe

Jared Benge

Jay B

Jeff Mangum & Astra Taylor, Neutral Milk Hotel

Jeff Rosenstock

Jeff Tweedy & Spencer Tweedy

Jeffrey Lewis

Jen Strickland

Jeremy Bible

Jesse R Berlin

Jill Sobule

Jimmy Keane

Joe Royall

John Kyle

John Wilkes Booth

John Zay

Jon Spencer

Jonathan Edwards (Panic Room, Luna Rossa)

Jonny X and the Groadies

Julie Cafritz (Free Kitten, Pussy Galore)

Julie Cira & The Wake

Kathy Foster (The Thermals)

Keba Robinson (Crosslegged)

Kevin de Souza (Uptown Boys Choir)

Killer Mike

Kimya Dawson

Kristin Forbes

Kristin Hersh

Kronos Quartet

Kyle McDonald (ZAUM)

Kyle Morton (Typhoon)

Ladykiller

Lapel

Laurie Marie

Lee Baines III & The Glory Fires

Lee Rose

Lightbath

Lisa Schonberg (Secret Drum Band, Explode Into Colors)

Little Big Noise

Loch & Key

Lovely Little Girls

Mad Hallelujah Tribe

Mag.Lo

Marcia Liebenow

Mark Empire

Matthew Caws (Nada Surf)

Matthew Romain

Megabog

Melkbelly

Merchandise

Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs)

Maggie May Morris (Genders, Sunbathe)

Michael Peterson

Mike Sturgill

Mike Watt

Mike Wroblewski (Genders, Paper Brain)

Mirah

Muse en Lystrala (Sirenne, Geek Musica, Crown of Melusine, Umbra Oceania)

Mutual Benefit

My Morning Jacket

Naked Blue

Nate Sabat (Mile Twelve)

Neko Case

Nicholas Hewitt

Nichole Wagner

Nylon Otters

Of Sleeping Bears

Okilly Dokilly

P.J. Franco and The Burnouts

Pallet House

Personal Best

Petaluma

Pete Gitlin

Peter Fish

Peter Stone Brown

Pieter Hilton (Typhoon, Deathlist, Sunbathe, Genders, Secret Drum Band)

Pile

Priests

Pyrosonic

R-SHON

R.E.M.

Rachel Blumberg

Rachel Marco-Havens

Radiator Hospital

Rah Zen

Rebecca Gates

Reeves Gabrels

Rob Alley

Robert “Neutron” Sound

Roland Marconi

Rosali

Rübezahl

STIG

Sacha Mullin

Sarah Fausett

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

Scarves

Seconds Before Landing

Seluekos

Seracs

Silvio Navarro

Simone White

Skating Polly

Skye Wallace

Slow Mass

Slow Wolves Club

Snow Bored

Space Coyote

SpaceWalker

Speedy Ortiz

Spencer Douglas

Spoonboy

Stay Inside

Stella

Steven Shanks (TimidBlue)

Summer Cannibals

Superchunk

Swearing At Motorists

TW Walsh

Taarka

Tanya Donelly (Belly)

Tara Jane O’Neil

Team Dresch

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

The Beginner’s Mynd

The Blow

The Buzzards of Fuzz

The Easy Leaves

The Furr

The Goat Wizard

The Josephines

The Moonracers

The New Restaurants

The SpeNerds

The Superweaks

Thrust Club

Thunderfish

Tift Merritt

Tim Lulofs

Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill, Spider and the Webs)

Told Slant

Tom Smith

Trash Panda

Turnip King

Tyler Stacy

Universal Doctrine

Urðarmáni

Vince SanFilippo/The Artist Formally Known As Vince

West of 69

Whims

Wild Cody

Wild Nothing

Will Johnson

Will Sheff (Okkervil River)

Will Stratton

Wimps

World Children’s Choir

Worriers

Xaddax

xtraspicy

YACHT

Zachary Lipez (Publicist UK)

Zohra Atash (Azar Swan)

Zoë Keating

 

 

Label + industry signers include

15 Passenger

American Association of Independent Music

Andrew Hill (Off the Record Studio)

Army of Bad Luck

Atlantic Rhythms

Bad Friend Records

Bloodshot Records

Cadence Independent Media

Captured Tracks

Carpark Records

Crash Symbols

Cuneiform Records

DZ Tapes

Decoder Magazine

Disposable America

DjinnFizz

Dischord

Don Giovanni Records

Ear Trumpet Labs

Ergotone Records

Exotic Fever

Experimedia

Exploding In Sound

Fandango Records

Fire Talk Records

Furious Hooves

Hardly Art

Heirship Records

Heavy Gel

IFS Records

Ingrown Records

Interrobang Records

JMC Aggregate

Kill Rock Stars

Kitten Charmer

Lame-O Records

Master Hand Records

Merge Records

MilShap Music

Misra Records

Objectively Good Records & Tapes

Old Line Audio

Omnian Music Group

Partisan Records

Polyvinyl Records

Posture Records

Regalia Records

Related Records

Rob Budowsky (Manager, Jacuzzi Boys)

Sarang Bang Records

Secretly Group

Shaking Shanghai

Sinderlyn Records

Sister Polygon Records

Slumberland Records

Sooper Records

Sub Pop

Tape Modulator

Temporary Residence

Third Man Records

Thirsty Ear Recordings

Thrill Jockey

Tiny Radars

To Live A Lie Records

Top Shelf Records

Trubee Records

Viva Ska Radio

Wallflower Records

Warpaint Records

About CASH Music:

CASH Music is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering artists through free and open tools for the web and education.

About Future of Music Coalition: 

Future of Music Coalition (FMC) is a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit organization supporting a musical ecosystem where artists flourish and are compensated fairly and transparently for their work.