Bryan Ferry’s music is the epitome of Euro soul: smooth and sexy, yes, but—unlike American R&B—steeped in Teutonic cool. The Roxy Music singer and solo star doesn’t make rip-off-your-clothes-and-get-freaky-in-your-bedroom jams; it’s all slow-motion espionage, illicit rendezvous in centuries-old hotels, and stolen kisses in the night. The 66-year-old sartorialist will forever look the part of a debonair gentleman, and his most recent album, 2010’s Olympia, still casts him in the role of romantic lead. But you need not gaze at Ferry to get weak in the knees. Just let the crooner caress you with his rounded tenor as gently wah-ing guitars and lightly funky drums soundtrack a European vacation in your pants. And mind. Bryan Ferry performs with The Phenomenal Handclap Band at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore. $55-$75. (301) 581-5100. (Christopher Porter)

MUSIC

It's Miami vs. D.C. night at Velvet Lounge: Bill includes Florida pop destroyers Dino Felipe and This Heart Electric and local noiseniks Animal Wigs (featuring members of Pilesar, Blue Sausage Infant, Timmy Sells His Soul) and Pilesar himself. 9 p.m. $8.

BOOKS

Ariel Dorfman, the Chilean writer and humans rights activist, looks back on his adventure after the military overthrew Allende in 1973 in his new book, Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of an Unrepentant Exile. 7 p.m. at Politics & Prose. Free.

Also, Ken Burns is discussing his documentary series Prohibition at 12:30 p.m. at the National Press Club. Go and get boozy!

FILM

The Latin American Film Festival continues at the AFI Silver. Of today's offerings, the most intriguing might be A Mysterious World, a discursive and jazzy narrative tour of Buenos Aires. At 9:20 p.m. $12.

ETCETERA

The Future of Music Coalition's summer continues at Georgetown University. Here's the schedule. Of particular interest to Arts Desk readers: Hays and Ryan Holladay of the duo Bluebrain are discussing their innovative location-aware albums, along with Beauty Pill leader Chad Clark. WaPo pop critic Chris Richards is moderating. 2:45 to 3:10 p.m. at Georgetown's Lohrfink Auditorium.

How do you catch Craig Finn, Damian Kulash, and T. Bone Burnett all in the same day without getting overpowered by the B.O. of thousands of sweaty music-fest attendees? You put on your sport coat, grab your laptop, and head to The Future of Music Coalition's annual summit in D.C., of course. At least, that's what I did.

If the fate of an entire art form sounds like a tough topic to adequately address, it is, but the conference provides a solid platform for policymakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and managers to talk about their latest gadgets, gripes, and tangentially related celebrity anecdotes. From what I gathered at the various panels I caught, the future of music looks a lot like the present, with slightly less downloading, a lot more streaming (especially if Spotify makes it to the States), and no way to replicate that magic era of the compact disc. Social media and digital distribution have replaced most of the traditional functions of a record label, except that coveted financial start-up capital and the still-useful curatorial stamp of approval. Business is rough but not impossible. Bands that write really great music and work really hard still have the best shot at making a living. These are not revelations, especially for the folks who follow this stuff seriously enough to go to a conference about it, but getting individual takes from panelists deep into their respective fields still makes for a stimulating discussion.

An in-depth analysis of all the panels that took place over a three-day event would be as laborious to read as it would be to write, so here are a few highlights instead:

-Amaechi Uzoigwe (of Definitive Jux) explained a massive surge in French hip-hop just developed due to a recent government mandate requiring radio stations play a minimum amount of French content. The sudden access to greater exposure for the more culturally relevant local artists was very well-received. Apparently, socialism has its benefits.

-Spott Philpott (of Merge Records) confirmed that Merge had in fact signed an artist off just a demo tape, but not in the past 12 years.

-Hank Shocklee (of The Bomb Squad) revealed his new-found love of Barry Manilow and his distaste for whatever music is the most successful at the moment.

-Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) declared his love for the new Black Mountain record and endorsed The War on Drugs (the band from Philly, not the endless waste of taxpayer money).

-T. Bone Burnett declared mp3s should be free because they are worthless and the future of music is analog. Considering how much revenue Burnett has undoubtedly made off of CDs and mp3, it seems awfully hypocritical to suggest bands go vinyl-only, but taken simply as a reminder to the tech-obsessed crowd that music transcends the latest iPhone app, it was a welcome cage rattle.

-Former GW student Zach Pentel (of 808 Management) explained to John Strohm (of The Lemonheads, currently a lawyer) that college students today—audiophiles please cover your ears for this part—primarily use YouTube more than any other service to listen to music.

-Damian Kulash (of OK Go), a D.C. native, recalled how he got a loan from Ian MacKaye at the age of 15 to put out a few records, right around when he was going to see Nation of Ulysses play in high school cafeterias. Kulash humbly explained he just happened to be into Cheap Trick and Joan Jett in the late '90s, when other locals were heavy into more abrasive material, and that pop affinity landed him a major label deal.

-Brendan Canty (of Fugazi) discussed his desire for more well-executed, high-quality YouTube videos of unusual artists around the world, mostly because a father of four kids just can't get out as often as, say, the drummer of a touring punk band.

-Mike Mills (of R.E.M.) hopped onstage at Black Cat with Damian Kulash, Bonerama, Hank Shocklee, Jonny 5, Jean Cook, Jenny Toomey, and probably a bunch of other notable musicians I'm forgetting about, to sing Neil Young's "Ohio," talk shit about Tea Party activists, and play bass on an encore of "Down By The Riverside."

The FTC has argued that this standard doesn't apply to traditional journalism outlets because "the newspaper receives the book and it allows the reviewer to review it, it's still the property of the newspaper."

It's an innocuous but offensive requirement, but I'm more interested in the FTC's imagined relationship between publishers and record labels and journalists and newspapers.

For one thing, the free CDs, books, and movies that come to the Washington City Paper come to individual journalists, not the paper, and if we like these cultural artifacts enough to review them, we often take them home with us and keep them, though we never ever say this in our reviews because no one gives a shit. In over a year here, I've never seen someone ask permission to take something home (though I have witnessed email fights over who gets to take what when supplies are limited).

Ergo, the boogeyman of unreported paid advertising is already happening. Music writers, for instance, do it for a living.  The New York Times doesn't let writers keep promos, but the Washington Post does. The great Robert Christgau even sold the stuff he doesn't like (according to my colleagues, this is still quite common and completely ethical).

And with regards to the future of music writing, where physical review copies are going the way of the podunk paper and its foreign bureau, things are about to get murkier. Will it still count as compensation if a label sends you a stream which you can access for a set amount of time for free, but which expires after two months? What if they send you files you can keep forever and ever–does the FTC have a system for tracking any of this? Does it have a system for measuring value? Is it going to raid WCP's offices now that I've admitted we get to keep all our promo shit?

The FTC's theory about how reviewing works sounds like imagined order at best, misguided favoritism at worst, and I hope to bring it up at the Future of Music Coalition's Policy Summit tomorrow, where I'll be a panelist on  "Critical Condition: The Future of Music Journalism," along with Maura Johnston of Idolator, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune and NPR, WaPo's David Malitz, Tom Moon at NPR, Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork, Casey Rae-Hunter of the Future of Music Coalition (and frequent WCP contributor), and a few other superstars.

If you haven't heard about the summit, you should go to this website now. I meant to post on this sooner, as the FMC's panels are absolutely amazing. You can watch a live stream of the proceedings at the same link.