IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?
The data lords are gathering data and giving it to organizations that then manipulate us with the things they know about us, things that we don’t even know about ourselves,” says five-time Grammy Award–winning composer, conductor, producer, and band leader Maria Schneider. “They give our data to any company that’ll pay for it to manipulate you, specifically targeting your vulnerabilities. It takes away freedom of thought, a true discourse where people are thinking for themselves. Count me out.”
The Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra’s new double album, Data Lords (Artist-Share), addresses surveillance, corporate overreach, and governmental failure to deal effectively with social media platforms, making a musical case that these datagathering machines abuse our rights while reaping millions.
“I grew up in Windom, Minnesota,” Schneider says. “We were surrounded by farmland. My dad was an engineer and he designed machinery for processing flax. He held quite a few patents. He invented things that are still used on every combine to this day for processing flax straw. So, I understood the idea of creating something and pride of ownership.”
Over the course of eight albums (four released on the independent, pro-artist label, ArtistShare), Schneider has become a fierce activist for musicians’ rights and copyright. In 2014, she spoke at a hearing on Section 512 of Title 17 before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet.1 “My livelihood is being threatened by illegal distribution of my work that I cannot rein in,” she told the subcommittee. “The DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] creates an upside-down world in which people can illegally upload my music in a matter of seconds. … It’s a world with no consequences for big data businesses that profit handsomely from unauthorized content, but with real-world financial harm for me and my fellow creators.”2
Beyond her role illuminating the infringing power and abuse of the data lords, Schneider makes
