Sunday, August 16, 2015

ASCAP BMI SESAC: Musical Terrorists

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

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Nuclear Nuggets

I could not let this weekend go without a little acknowledgment that August 6th and 9th of 2015 mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. dropping two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bomb changed our lives on this planet in so many ways. The likelihood and magnitude of a Thermal Nuclear War is hard to fully grasp by most, if they even consider it at all. Even today the thought of the standard conservative estimate of deaths of 200,000 human lives from the bombing is a brain twister.

This post is not well thought out or even organized (or edited) but consists of random links to some basic information relating to nuclear weapons history. I could be so much more extensive but for today I am being a bit lazy.. I could write a huge post just on the issue of  Israel and the Non-Proliferation Treaty and how the issue was just BLOCKED again in May 2015. But not today Hey, let's start with a little music. Buchanan Brothers- Atomic Power 1946 Country Music Song “Atomic power was given by the mighty hand of God.”

Here are just a few images for quick viewing just for fun. Can anything having to do with nuclear war be fun? Some think so. So Duck And Cover as you continue reading. But don't worry if you live in The House InThe Middle (1954) for anxiety relief.


In the current climate of the nuclear weapons debate I find it ironic that the Mother of the Bomb was aJewish woman, Lise Meitner. But then there is so much ignorance withing the history of nukes. The propaganda of the cold war is still with us For a great overview this PBS film is so excellent and hard to beat in it's scope. "Hiroshima" By John Hersey an article in the New Yoker August 31,1946 Issue changed the way American thought about the use of nuclear weapons. Ultimately the only way to win is not to play.

So here are just a few links for a refresher.



Black Rain
Nuclear Shadows ~ Video
 Please visit my website for more resources on activism and peace.