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The Best of the 2007 Media Reform Conference and Before the Music Dies

with special host Thenmozhi Soundararajan

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Best of the Media Reform Conference 2007 – 4 CDs – $120

Over three thousand people attended this past January’s National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis, Tennessee. Among the activists, experts and concerned citizens who gathered were Bill Moyers, Helen Thomas, Jesse Jackson, Jane Fonda, Deepa Fernandes, and Amy Goodman. The conference, organized by Free Press, opened with a stirring address given by veteran journalist Bill Moyers. Jesse Jackson invoked the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend as he called for greater media access and spoke out against the undemocratic nature of concentration in media. Jane Fonda addressed the pressing need to incorporate women’s voices into America’s media landscape.

Before the Music Dies – DVD – $75

Before the Music Dies is the electrifying music documentary that will renew your passion for great music and inspire your fight for its future. Never before have so few companies controlled so much of the music played on the radio and for sale at retail stores. In terms of radio, consolidation has reached a point where the top four radio station owners have nearly half of all listeners while localized radio ownership has declined by almost a third since 1975. Mergers have homogenized playlists and music diversity has suffered. With Interviews and performances by Erykah Badu, Les Paul, Bonnie Raitt and narrated by Forest Whitaker, Before the Music Dies tells the story of American music at this precarious moment. Filmmakers Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen traveled the country, hoping to understand why mainstream music seems so packaged and repetitive, and whether corporations really had the power to silence musical innovation. The answers they found on this journey–ultimately, the promise that the future holds–are what makes Before the Music Dies both riveting and exhilarating.