P&E Wing Celebrates 10 Years

Underscoring its commitment to audio excellence and ongoing support for the art and craft of recorded music, the Producers & Engineers Wing of The Recording Academy will kick off a yearlong celebration of its 10th anniversary with a GRAMMY SoundTables panel discussion at the 129th Audio Engineering Society Convention, taking place Nov. 4–7 in San Francisco.

The event, titled Sonic Imprints: Songs That Changed My Life, will take place on Nov. 6 with a panel discussion led by producer Sylvia Massy, featuring producer/engineer Joe Barresi, GRAMMY-winning producer/engineers Bob Clearmountain, Jimmy Douglass and Nathaniel Kunkel, and DJ Khalil as they explore tracks from their careers that have left lifelong impressions on them.

"When The Producers & Engineers Wing was established a decade ago, an essential voice was created for music makers: the voice of those 'behind the glass' that work so diligently to ensure that the quality and integrity of recorded music is captured and preserved," said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy. "Protecting and advocating for the rights of this group, bringing awareness to new technologies and working to improve the overall landscape of recording practices will continue to be priorities for the P&E Wing. We have made great strides and achieved many victories on behalf of this constituency, and we look forward to what the next decade will bring."

"The Producers & Engineers Wing provides a voice for those involved in every aspect of the recording process," said Maureen Droney, Senior Executive Director of the P&E Wing since 2005. "The music production industry has faced enormous challenges in the 10 years since the Wing was created, and it continues to face new technical, legislative and economic tests today. The P&E Wing's leaders, and its membership as a whole, are a dedicated body of creative professionals that has provided The Academy and the industry with a unique and invaluable resource with which to address these challenges."

"The Producers & Engineers Wing is about supporting the profession and preserving the beauty and timelessness of music and artistry," said GRAMMY-winning producer/engineer Ed Cherney. "It's about ensuring that music distributed over the Internet retains the integrity of sound that producers and engineers work so hard to create; the quest for fair and equitable intellectual property rights for our profession; thinking of ourselves as part of a group with common goals and ideas; nurturing our skills; and sharing our experience and knowledge."

Currently more than 6,000 professionals comprise The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing. Key P&E Wing achievements over the past decade include:

• The creation of several best practices guidelines: "Recommendations For Delivery Of Recorded Music Projects," "Recommendations For Surround Sound Production," and "Digital Audio Workstation Guidelines For Music Production."

• Partnership with leading data management firm BMS/Chace (with the help of a grant from the Library of Congress) to develop Content Creators Data, a structured metadata framework that includes an application for the collection of technical, descriptive and participant information that maps to the associated schema and will help ensure proper crediting on digital releases. Now at the completion of a three-year development process, the schema and application will be released in the first quarter of 2011.

• The P&E Wing helped lead the charge for The Recording Academy's advocacy participation in the matter of wireless microphones and "white spaces," organizing letter-writing and phone campaigns and lobbying in Washington, D.C. A key victory was achieved for musicians, singers and sound engineers with the FCC’s order reserving two channels in every market for wireless microphones and affording microphone users further protection through registration in a database. Other advocacy issues the P&E Wing has aided include support of both copyright enforcement and performance royalties for artists, musicians and record producers.

• Working in partnership with The Recording Academy's 12 regional Chapters, more than 35 events are produced annually that focus on professional development and education.