Music GroupsIFC's Conversation with Muxtape's Justin Ouellette
Nashville blogger Yewknee has posted two IFC videos of a independent music web panel that features Muxtape's Justin Ouellette, Vimeo's Jakob Lodwick and Idolator's Maura Johnston. (I'm focusing on Ouellette because the copyright issues faced by Muxtape is of particular interest right now.) This panel's topic was third-party, music-sharing websites.
In part two, some questions were posed to Ouellette about Muxtape (his music sharing site that has attracted the attention of the RIAA):
• How is that legal? A non-answer.
• How to make money with Muxtape? Another non-answer.
• What happens when labels start calling? "I would like to work with all labels of all sizes and with individual artists.... Everything I've been thinking about for the future has been related to, What can we do to create an equitable landscape for everybody?" Earlier, when asked about a scenario in which a label complained about copyright infringement, Ouellette said, "I have to honor that. I think that some people will make a decision that they don't want to interact in that space, and I think they're foolish not to. But I have to respect it. I really do."
When the panel started talking about intent and what it means to "help an artist," there was potential for really good discussion. But it fizzled. Overall, though, the videos are definitely worth watching and offer some insights into the sort of entrepreneurial and idealistic mindsets that are shaping today's (and especially tomorrow's) online music.
