Far Further and Global Music Community Work Together to Establish .music Top-Level Domain
Far Further is a top-level domain marketing and development company that was founded by music professionals in 2008 to serve the global music community through collaborative management of the forthcoming .music domain extension.
Our mission is to serve artists, musicians, songwriters and the professionals that support them; to promote music and to nurture the art… all for the love of music.
On January 12th, ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, opened the process that triggered a dramatic expansion of the Internet and ushered in a new era of online innovation. We are all familiar with .com, .org, .net, which are among the roughly two-dozen generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that are currently used in the Internet's addressing system. In addition, now there can be .music!
The creation of the .music gTLD will provide the music community with a legitimate and secure identifying Internet address that supports the promotion of music, the protection of intellectual property rights, and the advancement of global music education.
To ensure that any music-themed gTLD is operated in the best interests of the global music community, a number of music organizations evaluated the plans and proposals of potential applicants for a music-themed gTLD. Far Further is pleased to announce that it is working with the following music industry associations to develop an application for a music-themed gTLD.
Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC), American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), American Federation of Musicians in the U.S. and Canada (AFM), American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Association of Independent Music (AIM), Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), Bureau International Des Societies Gerant Les Droits D’enregistrement et de Reproduction Mecanique (BIEM), Church Music Publishers Association (CMPA), European Music Council (EMC), Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISAC), International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), International Federation of Musicians (FIM), International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), International Music Council (IMC), Music Producers' Guild (UK) (MPG), Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA), Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), National Association for Music Education (NAfME), National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM)/digitalmusic.org, National Music Council of the United States (NMC), National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), SESAC, Société d’Auteurs Belge – Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij (SABAM), Songwriters Guild of America (SGA), SoundExchange, The Recording Academy (The GRAMMY Award Organization)
From the time we began this effort in 2008, we were driven by the belief that .music should be a collaborative effort from within the music world. This initial list represents individual members in over 100 countries.
Registrants will be required to have a bona fide affiliation with an accredited Global Music Community Member (GMCM) before they can acquire a .music address, which is one of the many protection mechanisms designed to shield the music community from malevolent activity. We intend to safeguard the domain from abuse and take appropriate measures to ensure that the rights of artists, musicians, songwriters and the general music community are upheld and protected.
A Policy Advisory Board formed with organizational members of the worldwide music community will oversee policy for .music. We look forward to reaching out to other interested members of the music community from around the world as we continue to strengthen our collaborative development of the .music gTLD.
If you represent an association, company or other organization in the music community, please contact us if you would like to join with us.
