Friends of CC Music has decided to start a Netlabel Week. This is very simple. It is an effort to be inclusive of folks that may need to work or deal with other priorities on July 14.

Netlabel Day is still July 14, and we still fully support the work Omar is doing.

Netlabel Week will start that second Saturday of July (but probably really Friday night, right?) and go through the next weekend. It’s more than a week, but unless we expand it to the “12 Days of Netlabels” we don’t really have a concept of a 9.5-day event, do we? Well, we do now! Bookend your Netlabel Week with a party celebrating the finest in Creative Commons and netlabel music!

Friends of CC Music is currently working on events for 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028. As part of that, I met recently with Yuk MC and Josh from Louis Lingg and the Bombs. Toward the end of that call, Yuk asked me about to write something up about goals and thus we have this article.

Before I talk about the goals of the Friends of CC Music events, it should be clear that Netlabel Day has always been a community project. MIST ran Netlabel Day, but did not put on “Netlabel Day concerts and events in Chile, Argentina, United Kingdom, Spain, Mexico, Slovenia, and elsewhere.” That was the community. No one is going to get a Netlabel Week cease and desist. Just don’t say the event is being run by Friends of CC Music unless you are involved with your local Friends of CC Music chapter.

We are joining Netlabel Week with our events, not owning Netlabel Week.

As for the Friends of CC Music events, the events have two primary goals:

1. Promote Creative Commons music
2. Provide a place for the community to plan future initiatives without the distractions of daily life.

Promoting Creative Commons music can come in lots of forms, and might even include live recordings from musicians that are not otherwise Creative Commons musicians. For the sake of simplicity, we want all listeners of any recordings of Friends of CC Music events to know that they can share recordings of those events.

Individual events can take a different approach. For example, if someone wanted to promote only Free Culture musicians, that would be fine. Should we find in the future that this laissez-faire approach to which CC licenses are allowed, we will almost certainly fall back to any CC license. There is always the opportunity for folks to start a Free Culture organization outside of Friends of CC Music.

We will learn a lot with the 2025 event in Jackson, Mississippi. That is why it is important for anyone financially able to get to Jackson, so that they can help determine what works and what doesn’t for going forward. Then, we will take those learnings and directly apply them to Jackson in 2026.

Ideally, all of the future Friends of CC Music global events will have done a regional event beforehand. However, we are not the IOC. We are not in a position to layout a bunch of criteria.

Still, there are some things to think about when picking a venue. Cost is a big one, of course, but we also need to think about what happens in the event of inclement weather if the venue is outside. If the venue is not accessible via public transport, how will people get there?

One big consideration should be the ability to stream from the soundboard. We are talking about Netlabel Week. There should be some “net” component. Even if the event isn’t streamed live, the event should be recorded and posted online later.

One thing to consider, particularly for the local/regional events is whether there needs to be live music. It could be easier to have a conference instead, where musicians share how they record, ideas for marketing, etc. For example, Tom Ray of Lorenzo’s Music spoke about making music at a conference in Prague a couple of years ago.

We might at some point make the concert portion mandatory for the global events but have a conference or “unconference” provides a lot of benefits. You will get to see how people react to directions. Where do people come from? How is turnout? If you build a local event and two people show up, then perhaps you need to try again before having a global event. Another benefit is that a lot of music marketing and music making skills are going to be the same whether you are a CC musician or a non-CC musician. And you aren’t either a CC musician or a non-CC musician. A musician could easily have solo work that is CC and be in a band that is not CC. Having a gathering allows for folks to get together and have conversations.

BlocSonic generally considers itself a CC label. However, the label also has a few things that are All Rights Reserved because of licensing of samples. It also has some physical-only releases. Sometimes, people make decisions to protect themselves and their listeners. Omar has done this by making sure everything that goes on the stream is CC. Ryno has done the same with his stream. Friends of CC Music is doing the same thing with its future streams.

Huge fines for copyright infringement still exist. They did not go away when Spotify became ubiquitous. So, folks need to be mindful of that. That does not mean that non-CC musicians are the enemy. In fact, if you start treating people like an enemy, they are likely to treat you as one. So, of course, there has to be a balance here.

Non-CC musicians may just not know the frustration they are causing other musicians, fans, and other creators. And that is why we need workshops and conferences and things of that nature either tied in with concerts or as separate events.

If it seems like a daunting task to change the hearts and minds of musicians across the planet – it undoubtedly is. But a brick is just a brick by itself. It takes many bricks to make a house. And if you want those bricks to stand the test of time, you need to glue them together. This is why we absolutely must get together and have shared experiences. Without it, we are just a pile of bricks. We can build something world-changing brick-by-brick. Life is short. We might as well have fun doing it.

This, of course, is written directly to Yukon Sleeman, so Yuk, let me know if you have questions.

But also, there is a reason this isn’t just an email. Please let me know if you have questions. I can always update this or write a part 2 if needed…and of course one of us will be writing up some take-aways after we meet in Jackson next year. I hope to see you all there!