Re: OT: ASCAP/BMI and music licensing

[Travis Hartnett <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

The 60's may be "so over", but the idea of intellectual property has
taken a serious hit in recent years.  BMI and ASCAP are still clinging
to a business model from decades ago when the means of production were
much more concentrated than they ever will be again.  And most local
musicians will never see any significant money from BMI or ASCAP
because it's got no efficient way of measuring what music is actually
being played and performed and because most grass-roots musicians
receive negligable airplay.

I suspect that there's a lot of small venues who aren't going to pay
for performance licenses and are just going to stop having live music,
which isn't good for music, and probably not good for the music
industry in the long run.  You can't choke off the minor leagues like
that without seeing a dropoff in the talent pool a few years down the
road.  As far as I'm concerned, BMI, ASCAP and the Musician's Union
are worthless to me.  The only time I hear about them is when they
take opportunities away from musicians, because there's more of us on
the bottom than the top.