A city committee unanimously approved the addition of locally produced CDs to vending operations in Madison. The City Council will vote on the issue in May.

After much discussion, the Vending Oversight Committee decided Wednesday that CDs should be exclusively considered handcrafted goods, thus allowing licensed vendors to sell locally produced music. "When you have a very young population of musicians, like we do in Madison, they should be allowed to [sell their music]," committee member Diana Housein-Salaita said. She is one of the forerunners in including CDs as handcrafted goods.

Housein-Salaita reasoned that CDs should be included on the basis that books, also seen as a handcrafted good, are legally vended.

"We allow books and magazines and papers [to be sold by vendors], which are obviously all sent and mass produced at a printing press," she noted. "But any of us could burn our own CD."

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said intention of this amendment is to promote local bands.

Although committee member Hawk Schenkel voted to approve the sale of CDs by vendors, he expressed concern about making the regulations too broad.

"It could open a can of worms that is very difficult to monitor," he said.

Committee coordinator Warren Hansen agreed, and felt the ability to enforce the sale of only locally made music may pose problems.

"There's the occasional group who are not selling their own music, who are selling CDs that sound like their music, but aren't [local artists]," he said. "How is that enforced?"

Ald. Cindy Thomas, District 20, also agreed with Schenkel, saying the sale of only locally produced CDs could be difficult.

However, Thomas said the local music amendment should be approved in order to support local artists. She added the committee can then address problems with enforcement if and when they occur.

In order to avoid confusion, the VOC agreed the amendment must carefully specify that only locally produced CDs are considered handcrafted goods.

"We must specify that it's original music, self-recorded, and self-produced," Housein-Salaita added.