Urgent Message from NMPA Regarding Your Rights

[radiationroom]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

The whole thing is about preventing competition for the services of successful artists and songwriters. While they are at it, they want to minimize what a really popular artist or songwriter might be able to charge.

Which is why I question the constitutionality (USA laws) of compulsory licenses. Hasn't someone launched a lawsuit to try and throw compulsory licensing out via the courts?

[Bob Olhsson]

The problem as I understand it is that the constitution gives Congress the power to place limits on copyright ownership which otherwise would be the same as real property ownership under English Common Law. Historically this was put in because printing pirate copies of books was a thriving business in colonial America.

[myrtlebacker]

In reply to

Originally Posted by dnafe

and no doubt minimum wage is too high right?

and some others:

* I'd rather have some, preferably many listeners paying me a dollar each then no listeners paying me a hundred... Typically the people aren't asking you and me to write the song. So the (minimum) wage insinuation misses the mark.

* If you cut a deal with say 50% of the rate, then 50% of 12 cents are obviously better than 50% of 5 cents, so I don't think the discussion about, what the rate is going to be, is moot. If it were, why is there even an "Urgent Message" from the NMPA ?

* As to the compulsory license abolishment. It seems very tangential to the topic. Maybe a good topic for its own thread. Outside of this forum, it seems to be on noone's political agenda.

* Screaming "@%$ Internets! They be stealing my moneys!" and hoping that the music business infrastructure of the past returns, is no concept for the future.

[Bob Olhsson]

The point is that it should be every individual's choice what to charge. Obviously if there are no takers, it's a good idea for people to charge less. What people can charge has no business being dictated by middlemen.

The internet industry IS trying to steal everybody's income. Their concept for the future is nothing but unpaid amateur media or higher quality media that is controlled by only the largest corporations.

[Deborah Neville]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

http://www.loc.gov/crb/proceedings/2...dex.html#trial

For those who'd rather read the facts than listen to opinion.

Thanks for the Source Link, Bob....always fun to get to the horse's mouth. ...getting real/supported by "fact" working numbers (i.e. for artists - not just the gross math - but what it means for the pocket book of actual people we've heard of or, in your cases, probably know personally) seems nearly impossible...I sat for months (one day a month for many months) listening to the studios crab about how enabling computers to play DVDs would ruin the studios...when pressed for numbers & quanitifiers, none (or at least none convincing) were forthcoming...same scenario with the Writer's Guild Strike....even those close to the issue often are not armed with what a "regular" business would have: case scenarios and market projections.....SO I appreciate the Source Material, though interesting, I find it contains a low percentage of what I'd characterize as compelling "facts". Maybe I'm just not the brightest penny in the roll FYI for those who have NOT checked out the NPMA website, they have done a nice job on "legal basics"...worth a look.
deborah

[Bob Olhsson]

The only fact is that nobody knows where this is all going. This is why I think protecting peoples' negotiating positions is so critical. If we must have compulsory licensing, it ought to assume the upside.

[Deborah Neville]

Maybe I'm just lacking in vision, but is there a viable scenario in which no compulsory licenses exist? It's a bit facile to say "no caps", but realistically, who can pay the administrative costs in a market place with no "benchmark"...ceiling notwithstanding?
The "public good" is another reason, historically and perhaps ostensibly, for "ceilings"..making works of authorship available to the many, not the few with financial means...perhaps not the issue it was in colonial US when books were expensive and rare...
One wonders what Ben Franklin would have done in a digital age..
That said, there are other pain points in most artists contracts other than compulsory ceilings, including % to attorneys, etc. as Bob has pointed out....
dn

[Bob Olhsson]

Why should music need a benchmark when almost nothing else in life requires one? Public good is very well handled by public libraries and public education. A world where folks creating original art can't possibly earn a living does not serve the public well at all.

I also think modern communications and access to information makes all previous concepts of administration costs obsolete.

[Deborah Neville]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Why should music need a benchmark when almost nothing else in life requires one? Public good is very well handled by public libraries and public education. A world where folks creating original art can't possibly earn a living does not serve the public well at all.

I also think modern communications and access to information makes all previous concepts of administration costs obsolete.

And we can thank Ben Franklin for the first public library Perhaps you have something with the "no administration cost" approach...then the folks at the NMPA would lose their relevance.
Each author would, in a world of "no centralized administration" cut their own deals and administer performance to the deal? I still find it hard to fathom, but perhaps there are technical solutions of which I'm unaware... Are there? Always want to stay current...
dn

[Bob Olhsson]

Publishers are traditionally the financial investors that back songwriters and that role will probably become more important in the singles market.

It is amazingly easy to find out who the songwriters and publishers are, their PRO affiliations and contact information. It's also amazingly easy to find out exactly when and where music has been played on the air in recent years. And that's not to mention how many times it has been illegally downloaded along with from what city! Technology can also identify a song from across the room with a microphone.

You can get lots of this information for free and a few hundred dollars worth of subscriptions will let you plumb the depths. I can't imagine that there won't be automated administration services that are dirt cheap in the very near future.

[radiationroom]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

The only fact is that nobody knows where this is all going.

But I do have a hunch where we are headed... ...please pray that my visions of the future are wrong...


caption - the future of independent music

[Deborah Neville]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Publishers are traditionally the financial investors that back songwriters and that role will probably become more important in the singles market.

It is amazingly easy to find out who the songwriters and publishers are, their PRO affiliations and contact information. It's also amazingly easy to find out exactly when and where music has been played on the air in recent years. And that's not to mention how many times it has been illegally downloaded along with from what city! Technology can also identify a song from across the room with a microphone.

You can get lots of this information for free and a few hundred dollars worth of subscriptions will let you plumb the depths. I can't imagine that there won't be automated administration services that are dirt cheap in the very near future.

So are you saying that songwriters will each have their own publishing company? In a paragraph on self-publishing (p. 150 The Musician's Business & Legal Guide) .." The music publishing business if not so difficult that its mechanics would confound an attentive student. It is difficult, however, to obtain the commercial exploitation of compositions. For composers interested in and capable of properly administering and promoting the products of their artistry, self-publishing can be a viable alternative to the traditional arrangements with publishers, but in practice, few writers are successful going it alone.
" When a record is released on an independent label, financed by the artist, self-publishing makes sense. Universal copyrights are valuable assets --- it is inadvisable to transfer or lessen these rights without good reason."
Do you agree with the observation that "few writers are successful going it alone"?
Is this likely to change? Can/should the average independent songwriter administer: mechanical income, performance income, print income, synchronization income, and foreign income?
dn

[Bob Olhsson]

I would have agreed with that ten years ago but things have really changed. Ralph Murphy of ASCAP openly states that today publishers rarely place a song. In most cases its done by one of the writers.

Certainly getting foreign co-publishing deals are critical because publishers do most European record promotion but I think self-administration is becoming a lot more practical than it used to be. That said, nobody makes the money they should by just cashing ASCAP and BMI checks and not working their catalog. If they aren't going to work it, there are excellent administrators who will work for a percentage. There are also excellent negotiators who will save lots more than their fee securing negotiated mechanical licenses for albums.

[47thanks]

In Canada we're struggling with the same issues. The reality is that royalties are not collected and distributd for internet downloads or streaming.

I welcome any legislation that starts to look at this problem.

The other reality is that ever since royalties were first paid, the record companies and publishers have tried to keep royalty payments low. This will always be a fact.

Maybe we should start a songwriters union similar to the screen writers union. They'd have to cancel the Grammys unless they paid us a suitable royalty.

Just an idea. hardee Har Har!!

[radiationroom]

Originally Posted by 47thanks

Maybe we should start a songwriters union similar to the screen writers union.

Just an idea. hardee Har Har!!

No, don't laugh. A songwriter's union is an idea who's time has come.

[Bob Olhsson]

This is exactly what the Songwriters' Guild of America has attempted to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songwri...ild_of_America

http://www.songwritersguild.com/

The thing to understand is that NOBODY has EVER wanted to pay for music or for any other kind of intellectual property.

It has always been and will probably always be a battle. The DiMA has done their homework and is using all of the NAB's arguments and tactics that allowed the United States to become a haven from royalty payments.

[47thanks]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

This is exactly what the

The thing to understand is that NOBODY has EVER wanted to pay for music or for any other kind of intellectual property.

It has always been and will probably always be a battle. The DiMA has done their homework and is using all of the NAB's arguments and tactics that allowed the United States to become a haven from royalty payments.

People DO PAY for music, songs, or intelectual property, however they don't do it consistantly. The fact is, they try to avoid paying at all costs (pardon the pun).

If there was an effective music writers union, proper rates and charges could be championed.

Imagine if everyone who writes music...stopped. If writers had the right to prevent their music from being played. It would be interesting to say the least.

I'm not a big union fan but I believe sometimes people with a common goal need to band together to protect each other.

I'd love to see Sir Paul McCartney on a pickit line asking for more dough!! I'd be right there helping him out!

[radiationroom]

Originally Posted by 47thanks

If there was an effective music writers union, proper rates and charges could be championed.

Imagine if everyone who writes music...stopped. If writers had the right to prevent their music from being played. It would be interesting to say the least.

The problem is that there is an oversupply of unpublished songwriters who would jump at the chance of getting their work cut if the union went on strike. Some of those unpublished songwriters might actually be good enough to replace the union writers.

Remember my old attage: WHEN ONE MUSIC PERSON QUITS DUE TO AN OVERSUPPLY OF PEOPLE WORKING IN THE BUSINESS, THERE ARE 50 OTHER PEOPLE RIGHT THERE TO TAKE HIS PLACE!

[Bob Olhsson]

This is why restarting minor league music is so important. People need to be able to earn a fanbase and music career by learning how to please a crowd instead of needing to learn how to talk someone into trying to buy them one.

Yes, going international has always required getting investors but when there is little possibility of building a fanbase without substantial investment it has become a game of who is best at B.S.ing investors rather than who is the best entertainer.

It's the same problem as corporations where bizness has become about B.S.ing investors rather than about pleasing customers. The problem is hustlers in the middle who could care less about the source or the end user.

[Bob Olhsson]

Publishers Sue Music Provider to Yahoo, HMV, Samsung, Others



http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/02/...publisher.html