Every week, we find the most interesting and important stories at the intersection of the Arts, technology, and business and share them with you. (If you’d like to get these in your e-mail inbox you can subscribe to here). Check back every week for insightful and eye-opening stories that peaked our interest, and hopefully yours too. Ideo: Is Jazz School The Next Great Innovation Incubator? We call our approach design thinking. Berklee doesn’t have a name for their mind-set yet (“jazz thinking” or “music thinking” come to mind), but the similarities between the two have led us to believe there are fundamental entrepreneurial traits in the professional creative process. How Does Crowdfunding Change the Picture for Artists? Digital platforms let people successfully and efficiently sort into narrow niches, to find a vibrant-yet-specialized community of interest. These better matches are game-changers for some, but it may not be a boon for everyone. Introducing a New Tool for Unlocking the Power of Media Grants Data. Developed by Foundation Center and available on the Media Impact Funders’ website, this new tool enables users to see, understand, and dig deep into the numbers, networks, and trends surrounding media and philanthropy. Web Site Offers First Ever-Live Stream of a Broadway Show for $10. While tickets to the New York production are going for $52 to $147, the streamed show — offering 10 camera angles — goes for a mere $9.99 on computers, tablets, and smartphones. Or you can enjoy it on big TV screens by using Apple TV and Roku set-top boxes, but only if you pick a $169.99 (year-long) or $14.99 (one month) subscription to BroadwayHD. U.S. Dept. Of Justice Deals Crushing Blow To Songwriters. Songwriting and music licensing is one of the most strongly regulated areas in entertainment, […] Streaming services, in particular, have greatly disrupted the industry and led to tremendous declines in the revenue paid to songwriters. However, songwriters’ hands are mostly bound, because the federal government’s Consent Decree mandates how songwriters can be paid.

Courtney Duffy, our Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy Fellow, has the scoop on an important net neutrality opinion from the D.C. Circuit Court last month that gives the arts community cause for celebration. You can find Courtney on Twitter @cduffy90. In June, after more than six months of deliberation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released its opinion affirming the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order. The FCC’s historic decision, which reclassified broadband internet as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, empowered the FCC to protect a free and open internet.

New book for your summer reading list: The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon (photo by Lisa Niedermeyer) The title of Nina Simon’s new book, The Art of Relevance, perfectly sets up our expectations as a reader. It could have been titled The Ultimate Guide to Relevance, or 10 Steps to Being More Relevant, but Simon would never choose such titles because she understands relevance is a moving target. Framing the pursuit of relevance as an art primes us to seek insights into process. Many of you already know Nina’s work from her popular blog Museum 2.0, her best selling book The Participatory Museum or her TEDx Talk Opening Up the Museum. However, for those of you who don’t recognize the name, here is all you need to know in order to be interested in this book’s author — Nina is hungry for accountability. It is not enough to just talk about building relevance in diverse communities, she is deeply invested in what actually works and holding oneself accountable. Before reading this book my working definition of ‘relevance’ was something along the lines of ‘to be relevant you must be in tune with the current environment; you are topical and timely’. Simon replaces such milk-toast definitions of relevance with the following: Relevance is a key that unlocks meaning. It opens doors to experiences that matter to us, surprise us, and bring value into our lives. If we believe the products, services and experiences we create are relevant to a certain audience, but we aren’t unlocking new meaningful experiences for that audience, we aren’t in fact relevant to them at all. Take a moment to let that truly sink in. Many of us are likely attempting to market to, invite, and build for specific communities, but are we unlocking new information that is meaningful to the lives of those individuals? What would it look like if we did? What does it take to authentically do it well? How might the pursuit of relevance change us? What is the danger of irrelevance? The Art of Relevance is an opportunity to learn from others stories and Simon’s thoughtful framing. As I read the book I dog-eared page after page, making notes of the people in my world that I wanted to share the a-ha’s with. Here are the groupings those folks fell into, I highly recommend this book to: People designing new experiences (artists, software developers, curators). People leading efforts around equity and inclusion (arts admins, founders, board members). People advocating for the intersection of communities (disability + dance, museum + homeless, lgbt + race). People tuning into potential for scalable relevance (philanthropists, investors, entrepreneurs). The Art of Relevance is an engaging, 196 page read, anchored with stories and examples ranging from small artist-led community projects to large established institutions. (It’s worth noting 2 of the projects featured are Fractured Atlas members and past honorees of our Arts Entrepreneurship Award. Kudos to Museum of Impact and The Laundromat Project!). While the e-book version offers the convenience of reading on the device of your choice, the printed version offers a bright key covered front, thoughtfully designed as a social object. What conversations might be sparked with a stranger on a plane, on a park bench, on your commute, because you are both curious about unlocking meaning?

Each month we feature one of our fiscally sponsored projects who have been successful at using our program to advance their art/cause/career. This month’s featured project is Catacomb of Veils.

Arts, Technology, and Business Stories to Watch by Fractured Atlas Every week, we find the most interesting and important stories at the intersection of the Arts, technology, and business and share them with you. (If you’d like to get these in your e-mail inbox you can subscribe to here). Check back every week for insightful and eye-opening stories that peaked our interest, and hopefully yours too.

Music licensing for video productions can be complicated. You know you can’t grab a song out of iTunes and throw it on top of your video, but what can you do? More than anything else, your budget is going to control your song selection. If you don’t have tens of thousands of dollars allotted to your music budget alone, mainstream Top 40 pop songs will be out of your reach. But you still have options.

Arts, Technology, and Business Stories to Watch by Fractured Atlas Every week, we find the most interesting and important stories at the intersection of the Arts, technology, and business and share them with you. (If you’d like to get these in your e-mail inbox you can subscribe to here).

Arts, Technology, and Business Stories to Watch by Fractured Atlas Every week, we find the most interesting and important stories at the intersection of the Arts, technology, and business and share them with you. (If you’d like to get these in your e-mail inbox you can subscribe to here).

Source: Flickr Courtney Duffy, our Robert W. Deutsch Arts & Technology Policy Fellow, is back with the latest edition of Copyright With Courtney. She discusses last month’s outcome of the important Google v. Oracle case and what it means in the greater conversation about fair use. You can find Courtney on Twitter @cduffy90 and join the conversation using #CopyrightWithCourtney.