Re: OT: ASCAP/BMI and music licensing

[ArsOcarina@aol.com]

Travis, et al,

In a message dated 05/20/05 2:48:37, tiktok@sprintmail.com writes:

> I received an email from the booking agent at a local coffeeshop which
> now requires all performers to play 100% original music.  Now, to me
> this is a good thing, but the overall effect is chilling:
>
>   http://www.rakemag.com/printable.asp?catID=46&itemID=9106&pg=all

Well, all I can say to them is more power to them. This is not news.
Intellectual property rights, recording, publishing and performing rights
were not invented yesterday. It's only been in recent years, when blatant
piracy has become so egregious and ubiquitous that we now tend to hear 
of the guys who collect royalties for us (if we've bothered to join BMI or 
ASCAP and have been lucky enough to get airplay) as THE BAD GUYS.

I do not make a living from my music but I DO get a tiny little quarterly 
check from ASCAP which I am mighty pleased (and even proud) to have.
If I didn't get that I'd hardly get paid for my music at all -- most venues 
being what they are (and my music being what it is -- rather "difficult
listening" anyway). If one venue in five pays anything I'd be amazed. 
If I didn't have CDs to sell at gigs I'd make no profit at all (if you can 
call that profit). Heheheh.

I am not an ASCAP/BMI "nazi." I believe there should be some "wiggle
room" for the small fish in the pond -- performers and coffee-shop owners
whose impact, individually, is so small as to be inconsequential (and for 
other artists who want to cop a riff and/or slice 'n' dice something into 
a totally new piece). But doggone if I think it'd be a good thing if (and 
that's a mighty big "if") someone were to use MY music in a way that 
made THEM money and I never even get so much as a "thank you." 

I have to scratch and fight for every nickel I get already in my day job 
just to keep going and doing this thing I love to do -- which as you ALL 
know is soooooo darn expensive . . . and, at the end of the day, to put 
meals in the mouths and a roof over the heads of my family. I am
glad there is someone out there like ASCAP watching out for my 
interests in an active, even aggressive way. 

Perhaps it's easy for me to say 'cause I don't do covers publicly . . . and 
never have done them outside the confines of my own home. If I were a
looping "folkie" or pop "standards" (top 40, rock, jazz or country) musician 
perhaps I'd feel very differently. As listeners, music surrounds us and is
given away freely everywhere every day. This tends to make us think 
it ought to be free for us too in every other situation. Or, maybe, it's so 
a part of our environment that we think it's "ours." We think of proprietarily
of it even when it's not ours. 

Last time I checked, the '60s were soooooo over. The notion that all things
should be free and no one should own anything in a total hippie anarchist 
paradise is one that easily collapsed as soon as those hippies grew up,
got jobs and had kids (been there, done that, bought the t-shirt). 

Speaking of coffeshops, I am quite sure the reason that $tarbuck$ sells 
the musical artist anthology/collection CDs it does in its franchises is
so they can cover all the bases, have the music, pay the royalties due, 
and sell a few CDs too (to defray costs) on top of it all. I know that they
are a company a lot of us love to hate as the "Walmart of coffeehouses,"
but you have to admit it's a pretty smart scheme. And . . . the artists . . .
or their heirs and estate managers get paid (as they should).

Best regards,

tEd ® kiLLiAn

"Different is not always better, but better is always different"

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