Control Group ([info]control_group) wrote,
@ 2006-01-16 08:12:00
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"And the band played on" -or- "If it wasn't for lawyers, we'd have no music"
Well, don't that just beet awl.

I'm pretty much preaching to the converted, here, I suppose, but if there's anyone who reads this and doesn't think there are serious and fundamental problems with the legal edifice surrounding the music industry, try this on for size:

According to #100 in this BBC News Magazine article, "[m]usical instrument shops must pay an annual royalty to cover shoppers who perform a recognisable riff before they buy, thereby making a 'public performance'."

Wow.

Just, wow.


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[info]adamgreeney
2006-01-16 02:19 pm UTC (link)
Actually, along those lines, when i worked in Kanasas City, i was employed by a tea shop that had live music once a week. We were quickly shut down because we couldnt afford the $2500 annual fee to cover any artists that might play cover songs. . .

Now a bar or live music venue could cover that, a fledgling business? no. It was distressing because we stopped having ANY music at all, even entirely original acts. there is a point when policing goes to far.

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[info]control_group
2006-01-16 02:24 pm UTC (link)
there is a point when policing goes to far.

There sure is.

Unfortunately, that point is currently so far behind us that we can't even see it in the rearview, so most people don't realize it exists.

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[info]control_group
2006-01-16 02:26 pm UTC (link)
Also: do you happen to know if that fee went to ASCAP/BMI, or to the RIAA (or some subdivision thereof)?

I've always wondered who got a piece of the action and how when it came to cover bands in bars/coffee shops/etc.

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[info]adamgreeney
2006-01-16 02:34 pm UTC (link)
ASCAP.

I actually tried to become a member since i am technically an amateur musician, but the fee was a few hundred dollars, a copy of a CD with my original music and a licensing fee for the music.

needless to say, i hate ASCAP.

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[info]control_group
2006-01-16 02:39 pm UTC (link)
Provocative.

Not being myself a musician (the ability to hack out tunes on a piano if given simplistic sheet music doesn't count), I'm almost completely ignorant of how ASCAP does whatever it is that it does. All I know about them is they're the ones getting a slice for radio station playlists.

Which means that, in my ignorance, I've always viewed them more benignly than I view the RIAA, since they (at least nominally) represent artists, rather than labels—and I view artists as a valuable resource, while labels are simply middlement.

Apparently, I should have just assumed they were in the same league as the labels.

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[info]graye
2006-01-16 04:50 pm UTC (link)
They're one of the big funders of the RIAA, for sure.

Canada has something similar; SOCAN, which serves the same purpose. They do their best to distort the labels as much as anybody, and I've seen restaurants in the area get hit with huge fines for not paying their SOCAN levies just to play the radio.

My father, having worked with many artists and musicians and independent labels over the years, positively LOATHES SOCAN. They're another agent of market control; if you're not on a big label, they don't want anything to do you, and yet if you play music (pretty much from anywhere) in a live venue or a public gathering place, they want a cut.

Basically, they probably have 5% of acts stabled but manage to take a cut from most every venue out there.

I'm sure the US is no different.

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[info]graye
2006-01-16 04:46 pm UTC (link)
Its not about policing, its about market control.

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[info]graye
2006-01-16 05:01 pm UTC (link)
Also, surely you read Copyfight, Michael Geist,, Matt Good, and Lawrence Lessig?

I like the Creative Commons, too. Infothought is occasionally worthwhile, as well.

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