Far Further

Type:	Privately held
Industry:	Internet/Marketing
Founded:	2008
Headquarters:	179 Belle Forest Circle Suite 104, Nashville, TN 37221
Country:	USA
Website:	www.farfurther.com
LinkedIn:	Far Further
Key People
Loren Balman, CEO John Styll, President & COO

Far Further is engaged in top level domain name (TLD) development and marketing. The company was established by music professionals in 2008 with the primary objective to serve as the registry operator of the .music community gTLD.

The company aims to unite the global music industry and to provide a secure domain space for the industry, to promote music, protect intellectual property rights and to help advance music education through the .music TLD.

Far Further partnered with eNom, the second largest ICANN accredited registrar and subsidiary of Demand Media to provide back-end registry solutions for the .music domain space.

In February 2012, the company won the support of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). According to Far Further president John Styll they gained the RIAA support after a strong competition with other parties who responded to the association's RFI process. Styll said, "The RIAA put together a loose coalition of organizations from sectors from around the world and ran a pretty intensive RFI process."

This means that Far Further was able to demonstrate that it has a clear and strong policy regarding intellectual property rights protection in operating the .music TLD. RIAA has been a strong advocate on this issue. The association previously wrote to the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) requesting the implementation of "heightened security measures" for the .music gTLD.

Styll explained that the .music domain name space will be restricted to accredited Global Music Community Members. He emphasized that the company will monitor the contents of their registrants and under the registrant agreement, all entities with .music domain names are strictly prohibited in violating the intellectual property rights of other parties. He pointed out, "We’re retaining the right to conduct searches. If we find evidence of infringing activity we’ll give you the opportunity to correct that, or we can take down the site."

Other Supporters

Apart from the RIAA, Far Further's bid for .music TLD is also supported by the following organizations:

• 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)
• SESAC, Société d’Auteurs Belge – Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij (SABAM)
• Songwriters Guild of America (SGA)
• Sound Exchange
• The Recording Academy (The GRAMMY Award Organization)

Management Team

Far Further's management team include:

• Loren Balman, CEO
• John Styll, President & COO
• John Frankenheimer, .music General Counsel
• Ralph Simon, Head of Global Development
• Paul Zamek, SVP Global Marketing
• Keith Thomas, VP of Artist Relations
• J. Beckwith Burr, .music Special Counsel

.music Strategic Advisors

• Alexa Raad, CEO of Architelos
• John Matson, COO of Architelos
• Norbert Grey, CFO of Architelos

Competitors

Other parties applying for the .music TLD include:

• Music.us and MyTLD headed by Constantine Roussos and Tina Dam
• Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. (TLDH) in partnership with LHL TLD Investment Partners of Beverly Hills California (LHL)