This is a post long in the making and
less extensive than it could be. Be that as it may let me start
today's post with a quote from Wikipedia from it's Street Performer page.
“Benjamin Franklin, the American
inventor and statesman, was a street performer. He composed songs,
poetry and prose about the current events and went out in public and
performed them. He would then sell printed copies of them to the
public. He was dissuaded from busking by his father who convinced him
it was not worth the stigmas that some people attach to it. It was
this experience that helped form his beliefs in free speech, which he
wrote about in his journals.”
Singing was most likely the first form
of music. Some of the oldest known musical instruments in the world,
flutes made of bird bone and mammoth ivory are said to be 42,000 to
43,000 years old. (some say 55,000 years old) There is evidence that
with per-historic humans the noises created by pounding seed and
roots is a likely source of rhythm and drumming. But my focus here
today is not the history of music or the matrix of the issues of free speech but more focused on a disturbing aspect of the modern music industry.
Specifically performance rights licensing agencies (PRO) and their over the top actions against small coffee shops and cafes.
If you Google "performance rights
organizations close coffee shops cafes" you get "About
5,900,000 results (0.54 seconds)" Getting off the first page
and start scrolling you will find headlines like:
Musical Terrorists.
I think you get the picture. Theses
Music-Copyright Enforcers
have run amuck Although to run amuck mean to to "rush about in a
murderous frenzy", it's not too harsh a term to me as they are
murdering many small businesses and causing irreparable harm to peoples
lives in my opinion and the opinion of many others. Like the Small Business Against BMI ASCAP Extortion group on Facebook
They state the problem well on their About page
Some artists have performed to support local cafes to pay their licensing fees
as the cost is so excessive that the owners often have to choose to
have no music performance at all. And it is just not just musical
performers. I have friend who has a belly dance school who perform
around my city all the time but they have to pay these PROs also as
sometimes they dance to contemporary music as well as traditional.
Some of the affectionate terms used for
ASCAP BMI and SESAC are: Royalty Racket ~ Bloodsuckers ~ Legalized
Extortionists ~ Brutal Mob Thugs ~ Shakedown Artists ~ Music Mafia. I
refer to them as Musical Terrorists. My biggest issue with this
beyond the crippling costs for small venues is that the next
generation of great artists are finding less and less locations where
they can perform. Where would people like Bob Dylan be without places
like the Gaslight Cafe
when he was starting out? There are too many famous artists to list
who began in small coffee shops and cafes. Another issue is the war
on Buskers (Street Performers)
and the many who started that way
also. But that is a slightly different issue I may explore in the
future.
If you read about the History and Development of Music Performance Rights you realize the basic intention of these organizations were good ones
and I do not disagree with that. But like so many things they have evolved (or devolved) beyond their original intent. In my conversations with venue
owners and musicians on these issues I got much feed back of the pros
and cons from many vantage points. Some I spoke with saw the issues
clearly from both sides a they were owners as well as performers. But
everyone I spoke with had two things in common. (mostly Facebook
contacts) They believed that these folks should not even be going
after small venues and they were all reluctant to discuss this on
line and asked me to call them instead. That last point showed to me that even if
they are playing by the rules they are still very frightened of these
Music Terrorists.
I realize this is a brief post. So to conclude I ask two questions. Are
these PROs really non-profit as they claim? Some firmly believe not. And that is why I believe the increased push against the little guy
is happening. They see the writing on the wall in the future of how
music is distributed and know their profits are going to decline. I
can hear the echo of the screams of the coach builders when the
automobile came on the scene, as they too knew they were a dying
industry.
And secondly, is it time to push hard
against these folks and demand they change the way they charge small
venues if their intent is really to support the artists? I certainly think so.
So go out and hear some live music at a coffee shop or small cafe near you! Please visit my website Kether Muse
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