JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Another ASCAP Controversy

Well, I have to agree with everything that Brian said above. Here are a couple of additional comments:

Seems to me that the idea that all of this only deals with "covers" of songs is completely off the mark. All of my songs are registered with BMI. If I go to perform at a venue that is not BMI-licensed, strictly speaking I would not be permitted to perform my own songs. Doesn't matter if they're my songs or someone else's. What matters is if the songs are licensed by a PRO.

The artists who are performing at these venues, and who are crying and moaning that the venues might have to close down, should be affiliated with a PRO themselves. They might collect a few pennies here and there. They might show, as Brian says, that they place some value on their music. They might, in fact, stop taking the "wrong" side in these debates, and instead line up with their fellow songwriters to make all of this more economically viable for all of us.

The PROs definitely need to do a better job: Better at educating writers in the first place of the entire function of a PRO, better at educating the venues, better at accounting for performances, ad infinitum.

Remember, too, that some of us are =not= gigging musicians. I write and record at home. My primary focus is on film and TV placement; and from time to time, I'll submit something to a publisher or a performing artist. If I'm going to make any money at all, it is going to be through PRO royalties. Not record contracts, not touring, not CD sales. Performance royalties.

I realize I'm probably in the minority on this, but I certainly don't think I'm the only writer in that position. And everyone in my situation has a vested interest in seeing that the performance royalty system is as strong and as fair as possible.

But bottom line, ALL writers have that same vested interest. We can't be saying, "No, let's exempt all these businesses from paying the PROs" -- that's simply taking money out of our own pockets. Money that we are rightfully due.

If the venue owner offered to pay you $25 for your gig, would you say, "Oh, no thanks, you keep it, you need it more than I do"???

Yeah, the PROs need to get their acts better together. But I think we as writers need to help them do it, as well as help educate other writers and the general public on these issues.

Those of you who do gig and perform covers, consider this: When you perform a cover, you are using someone else's work in order to enhance your own performance. Don't you think the person who created that work deserves a little compensation for providing it for you to use? Or do you think the writer's job is simply to crank out songs that you can then appropriate and use for free?

--- Ed