Artists, Your .music Citizenship is in Jeopardy

Far Further, the parent company for .music LLC, along with the RIAA, Recording Academy, ASCAP, SoundExchange and 38 other trade groups are trying to turn the .music domain into a fraternity. In order to use the .music domain extension, you will have to be a member of one major music community organization from their list.

In its application for .music registry, Far Further claims that “.music top-level domain (TLD) is built on a commitment to foster musical creativity while protecting creative and intellectual property rights.” But it seems to do the exact opposite for those not associated with any major music community organizations and therefore not “identified and validated as a member of the music community.”

I actually feel a few different ways here.

If an artist’s music is being played anywhere other than their garage, they are going to have to go with one of the big royalty collectors. So in a sense having your publishing in order does signify that you are really in the music industry.

But, as necessary as it may be for artists to be published, most brand new artists aren’t. So should these institutions be the deciders of who can create a .music? My gut says “no.”

On the bright side, although .music is technically a general TLD, it’s usually third choice out of the more inclusive (and therefore more popular) domain extensions. Just get a dot com and call it a day.