Thursday, March 31 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Track IV: P2P – Voice of Artists and Content Creators: Film, TV & Music In the controversial period since the introduction of P2P in the late 90s, the voice of the artist in the file sharing debate has generally cut in two directions, indicating a conflict of interests. It is clear that the primary concerns of the artist surround independence, creative freedom and control of their art and their generally uneasy relationship with corporate culture color their position toward file sharing. While the libertarian strain of the artist would indicate a support for the basic free-content anti-establishment instincts of the consumer, as industry revenue declined, the concern of the artist to maintain a secure financial base and maintain copyright and integrity of artistic property became a larger concern. In the current state of the controversy, technology is rearing its head once again, creating new and better alternatives to file sharing, perhaps even making the future of P2P palatable to all sides. Dave Kusek, Vice President, Berklee College of Music Seth Freed, Label Director-Blue Man Group Records Sam Jennings, Director, NPG Music Club, Prince Scott Page, CEO & co-founder NewMBC, saxophone and guitarist, Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Toto Jay Cooper, Shareholder, Chair, L.A. Entertainment Practice, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, Moderator Additional speakers to be announced Dave Kusek, Vice President, Berklee College of Music: Dave Kusek is a musician who has been inventing the future of music for the past twenty-five years. He was one of the first to capitalize on the commercial potential of computers and music. As an early synthesizer and electronic music pioneer, Dave cut his teeth co-inventing electronic drums at Synare, which helped ignite the disco sound. Kusek went on to found Passport Designs, the first successful music software company. Kusek is also co-developer of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) standard that opened up electronic music to literally millions of people. His efforts, along with others, set the stage for the desktop music market that we have today. In 1993, Kusek, with A&M Records, designed and developed the first commercially available enhanced CD. Today, Dave Kusek is innovating at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., the premier school for aspiring professional musicians for over half a century. Dave is Vice President for Berklee Media responsible for Berklee Press, the college's publishing division and Berkleemusic.com, Berklee's online music school and career networking center. Kusek is also an active consultant, author and producer of interactive DVDs and other media. His latest book, The Future of the Music, will be published in January 2005. Dave has been quoted in Wired, Billboard, Boston Globe, New York Times, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and has been a speaker and lecturer at Berklee, MacWorld, Comdex, PC World, NAMM, AES, and Cal State University. Berklee is the world's largest music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music. Berklee's 35,000 alumni are a who's who of the industry. Berkleemusic.com is Berklee's online music school providing worldwide access to Berklee faculty and instructor-led courses in Production, Songwriting, Arranging, Music Theory and Music Business. With online courses such as "The Future of Music", Berklee's curriculum explores challenging aspects of the music business. Seth Freed, Label Director-Blue Man Group Records: For the past 5 years Seth Freed has served as the Label Director for Blue Man Group's record label, Blue Man Group Records. In conjunction w/ Virgin Records and Lava/Atlantic Records, he devised and implemented national & regional marketing plans for Blue Man’s Gold Grammy-nominated debut album Audio, highly successful follow up album The Complex, Platinum Live DVD, The Complex Rock Tour Live and two 5.1 Surround Sound DVDs. In addition, his time with Blue Man Group has allowed him to work on A&R, Licensing, Business Affairs, Music Publishing, Strategic Marketing and New Business Ventures. Most recently he helped organize Blue Man Group’s 90 city Rock tour and secured scoring opportunities on Fox-TV’s "The Jury" and 20th Century Fox’s animated feature entitled "Robots." Prior to Blue Man Group, Seth worked with Razor and Tie Entertainment, Bottom Line Records and Profile Records. Sam Jennings, Director, NPG Music Club, Prince: Sam Jennings began working with the Internet in 1994 while studying fine art, design, and art and technology at The Art Institute of Chicago. In 1999, Sam helped create Prince’s Love4OneAnother.com site and in 2000, launched a new website for Prince called NPGOnlineLtd.com focusing more on Prince's music than the previous collective. While developing NPGOnlineLtd.com, Prince and Sam began experimenting with releasing Prince music online, creating an experience that went beyond single downloadable tracks. They wanted to bring Prince's strongest supporters together and establish the direct connection Prince had visualized. When NPGMusicClub.com was unveiled, they gave Prince's fans what they wanted most – music and a vibrant online community of people who are all connected by Prince’s music. Earlier this year, NPGMusicClub.com won Billboard’s Digital Entertainment Award for "Best Use of Technology by an Artist." Scott Page, CEO and Co-founder NewMBC: Mr Page is a veteran of the media industry. As former saxophone and guitarist for such musical acts as Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Toto, he has more than 35 years of experience in the music and entertainment industry. For the last 13 years he has been pioneering new entertainment technologies in digital media. Currently he is CEO and Co-founder of NewMBC, a Multimedia communications company that is reinventing the communication experience, by offering a compelling new way to create and share media on network enable desktops and mobile devices. Prior to NewMBC, Mr Page was Co-Founder of 7th Level, a publicly traded interactive entertainment company. As EVP he was in charge of creative for the company’s award wining entertainment and educational products. As a producer he co-produced Tune Land, staring Howie Mandel, which was the worlds first interactive musical cartoon and the highly acclaimed Monty Pythons interactive series. Mr Page serves as guest lecturer and panelist at numerous new media conferences and was profiled as one of the top 100 multimedia producers by Multimedia Magazine and one of the 50 Innovators in Pioneer’s publication. "Multimedia Frontier" Jay Cooper, Shareholder, Chair, L.A. Entertainment Practice, Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Jay Cooper's practice focuses on music industry, motion picture, television, multimedia and intellectual property issues. He represents individuals and companies on intellectual property matters including recording and publishing agreements for individual artists and composers; actor, director, producer and writer agreements in film and television; executive employment agreements; complex acquisitions and sales of entertainment catalogs; production agreements on behalf of music, television and motion picture companies, and all entertainment issues relative to the Internet. Jay has guest lectured at Harvard Law School, UCLA Law School, USC Law School, USC Music School, Stanford Law School, Boalt Hall, Tulane Law School, the Florida Bar Association, the Texas Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the California Copyright Conference, MIDEM, the American Film Market, the Cannes Film Festival, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the U.S. Copyright Society, and the American Bar Association. He is also a former adjunct professor of Entertainment Law at Loyola Law School.