[MLA] Permission to use MLA as the petitioner for....

[Grimm | Eelco]

Dear all,

I have no objection against getting Ian in the MLA group. I also would love to get everyone's feedback on the petition. Ian is drafting a new version at the moment, I suggest we wait to share it until that is in good shape. It takes a lot of iterations to become the kind of document that has impact but at the same time does not push anyone into the trenches. Your help would be well appreciated.

Regarding Apple: we know they will not listen to us or AES, so it does not make a big difference whether we run the petition or not. Spotify would be easier, but they will definitely not choose -16 LUFS on their own. We got some leads for Google at AES, I suggest we ping those during the time we draft the petition. Let's hope we get connected.

All in all, my feeling is a petition could work if done well. The interest in the pro audio community is huge, hopefully the musicians community will also step into it. I guess it does not hurt if we can show to the streamers that there's a lot of people who care about audio quality. 

Cheers,
Eelco

On 4 nov. 2015, at 00:01, Kevin Gross wrote:

> I tried to get Ian into the group a couple years back and that did not happen and that was fine. My position is unchanged since then. If others have a different feeling about things now, maybe it makes sense to revisit.
> 
> I am not so enthusiastic about the petition. I agree that we have exhausted our normal options with Apple. I am not so confident that they will be moved by a petition. I think it is actually possible that they will further entrench themselves in response.
> 
> With other companies, we have certainly not exhausted our options and there is a lot of potential progress there. I will read the petition when a draft is available. I will be looking for something that is productive and conveys a cooperative spirit with OS vendors and audio companies and services.
> 
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 9:52 AM, Bob Katz <bobkatz at digido.com> wrote:
> Dear Fellow MLA members:
> 
> First of all, Eelco and I would like to nominate Ian Shepherd to become a member of the MLA. May I please have a second and a show of hands approving his membership...
> 
> 
> --------------
> 
> 
> After the whirlwind AES show I would like to put you up to date on a project that I began and which Eelco and Ian and I are currently working on: A Petition, intended to be put on change.org, tentatively titled:  "Say No To A Streaming Loudness War". I've delicately mentioned this petition idea to a few people at the Convention and everyone, I mean literally everyone, is enthusiastic about this idea, whose time has definitely come. 
> 
> As you know, we have spent several years trying to bring Apple and other companies and streamers to the table and so far had no response. And in fact, Apple informed the Technical committee for Streaming loudness that it is against their company policy to participate in any outside organizations. 
> 
> So, at this moment here is the status of the petition:
> 
> It is currently in draft. As soon as the three of us are happy with its content, which could take a few more weeks, we will let you all see the draft and give us your feedback. 
> 
> I'm not certain when the date of AES president position changes, but I'll refer to Andres Mayo as past president and John Krivit as current president for our convenience:
> 
> Andres Mayo, AES past President and mastering engineer, is very much in favor of this petition. Andres and I participated in trying to get Apple to become a part of our technical committee and failed. John Krivit, AES president, is also very much in favor of this petition.
> 
> However, it is highly unlikely that the AES can act as an advocacy organization for the petition, in any case, which is ironic, since the goal of the society is to encourage high quality audio. Nevertheless, even if the AES were an advocacy organization, it would take so much red tape to get it to approve the petition that we all know we should find another way to make it happen. 
> 
> My proposal is that the MLA become the named organization behind the promulgation of this petition and I would like to ask your permission to make that happen. Of course you all will have approval of all our actions and nothing will happen without your knowledge and consent. May I have a second of this motion and a show of hands to approve this motion: "MLA to be the organization behind a streaming loudness petition to be put on change.org."
> 
> Other good news: We are beginning to round up friends, producers, engineers who have contacts with important musicians and artists, who will be willing to sign this petition. Please start thinking about your contacts, prominent musicians whose name at the top of the petition will get the attention of Apple, Google, Spotify, and other streamers that are the petitionees. Let us know here the names of prominent artists that you could personally contact. I know that Thomas is a friend of Mark Knopfler and he would be a slam dunk. I won't bother to name other names right now that we have contact with, but I can assure you that the potential list of signers will be prominent and thus will gain a lot of attention and publicity, even in the regular news.  
> 
> More news about this exciting development in the near future. I hope you all will come on board for this important next step in the struggle to get streamers on board with loudness normalization using a sensible target. 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> 
> Bob
> 
> -- 
> Bob Katz 407-831-0233 
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> 
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