MP3 music forces meet in S.D. for 2nd summit
By Mike Drummond
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 13, 1999
Renegades from the digital underground. Entrepreneurs in charge of start-up firms. Representatives from America's wealthiest corporation. Even a former songwriter for the Grateful Dead.
All of these and more will be converging on San Diego for the second annual MP3 Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The conference will focus on developments in delivering music over the Web -- a young movement that some say threatens to sever the recording industry's $40 billion stranglehold on music distribution.
San Diego has become Ground Zero in that movement, because it's home to a growing number of digital music software companies, including MusicMatch, Digital On-Demand and leading digital music distributor MP3.com -- the North Star of the MP3 Universe.
MP3 is a format that squeezes digital music files so they can be easily zapped over the Internet. The recording industry considers the format an outlaw, citing piracy concerns, and is struggling to develop formats that prevent bootlegging copyright material.
Although Microsoft, AT&T and other technology and music companies have made or are developing alternatives, the MP3 format so far is the de facto standard.
This year's summit -- where legal, technical and business issues affecting the movement will be discussed -- underscores the rapid maturation of MP3, which has emerged from the backwoods of cyberspace to the international stage in about a year. Microsoft, Thomson Consumer Electronics and RealNetworks will share floor space with locals Gateway, MusicMatch, Intervu and MP3.com.
Last year's conference started as a pizza party and grew by word-of-mouth into a "galvanizing" event, said MP3.com chief executive and summit founder Michael Robertson.
Although acts such as Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys earlier had attracted press for trying to post songs on the Web against the wishes of their labels, it wasn't until last year's summit that companies, computer junkies and artists trafficking in music on the Web coalesced into an identifiable movement.
From the event, small software companies struck relationships, others were acquired and still more attracted investor interest.
Robertson in particular has been successful in demonizing the recording industry for its hold over artists and continued intransigence to embracing online music distribution. His David vs. Goliath battle cry has lofted the company's profile while resonating with technology buffs and musicians, including name acts Tom Petty, Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos.
This year's summit is expected to draw more than 500 attendees -- double that of last year -- with an exhibit hall and some of the biggest names in the software and hardware business.
However, unlike last year, this summit won't have any members from the Recording Industry Association of America and only a couple from the major record labels participating on panels.
"We threw out a lot of invitations to people in the music industry, but we pretty much got shut out," Robertson said. "We mailed the RIAA and begged them to come out.
"We'll have a lot of people from the music industry attending. But getting the top dogs from the industry to get up on the stand and go on the record has been challenging."
RIAA spokeswoman Susan Lewis said organization officials are participating in a Secure Digital Music Initiative conference -- a sort of anti-MP3 Summit -- in Los Angeles this week.
"There are so many conferences on these topics now," Lewis said, adding that the RIAA will dispatch someone to attend the local summit, but not to speak.
Among those who will be speaking: John Perry Barlow, the retired Wyoming cattle rancher, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former long-time lyricist of the Grateful Dead.
Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist, composer, author and father of the term "virtual reality," also will deliver a keynote address.
"Those are some classy, really, really, really smart guys," Robertson said.
The summit will be Webcast live and for free by San Diego-based Intervu. (http://www.intervu.com)
The summit takes place at UCSD's Price Center. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, with the first keynote address at noon. Wednesday sessions start at 9 a.m.
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