About The Author
David Fagin
David Fagin is a musician, songwriter, producer, and artist-rights advocate best known as the founder, lead singer, and principal songwriter of the power-pop band The Rosenbergs.
The band became a case study in artist leverage in 2000, when Fagin publicly refused a slot on Universal-affiliated Farmclub over a 23-page, six-album contract that would have handed the label the band's website and publishing in exchange for roughly two minutes of airtime (Billboard). His refusal circulated widely and drew coverage in Wired and the Denver Post. The Rosenbergs instead signed with Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile on a revenue-share deal that let the band retain its own masters, releasing Mission: You in 2001, and partnered with Napster on tour promotion.
Fagin carried that argument into policy. He was an officially listed witness in the U.S. Copyright Office's Digital Performance Rights CARP proceeding in Washington in 2001 (Federal Register) and served on the "New Models" panel at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit at Georgetown University in January 2002 (Georgetown Music Policy Forum archives). He argued the case in print as well, in a signed Billboard opinion piece calling for a return to real artist development over litigation (Billboard, Nov. 20, 2004).
His song "Birds of a Feather" was used as the theme to the CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose (IMDb). He has shared bills with Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Alex Chilton, Supergrass, and Todd Rundgren, and is the creator and executive producer of the TV project Rock in a Hard Place (IMDb).
The band became a case study in artist leverage in 2000, when Fagin publicly refused a slot on Universal-affiliated Farmclub over a 23-page, six-album contract that would have handed the label the band's website and publishing in exchange for roughly two minutes of airtime (Billboard). His refusal circulated widely and drew coverage in Wired and the Denver Post. The Rosenbergs instead signed with Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile on a revenue-share deal that let the band retain its own masters, releasing Mission: You in 2001, and partnered with Napster on tour promotion.
Fagin carried that argument into policy. He was an officially listed witness in the U.S. Copyright Office's Digital Performance Rights CARP proceeding in Washington in 2001 (Federal Register) and served on the "New Models" panel at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit at Georgetown University in January 2002 (Georgetown Music Policy Forum archives). He argued the case in print as well, in a signed Billboard opinion piece calling for a return to real artist development over litigation (Billboard, Nov. 20, 2004).
His song "Birds of a Feather" was used as the theme to the CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose (IMDb). He has shared bills with Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Alex Chilton, Supergrass, and Todd Rundgren, and is the creator and executive producer of the TV project Rock in a Hard Place (IMDb).
