Bob,

You must be reading a different posting and connecting it to me. I've never supported the concept of writing down and submitting playlists. That's Grahams thing and I think it's both impossible and ridiculous to keep track of. I am the one who said I don't believe the PRO's have any programs to even handle something like that.

My point is that you said that songwriters benefit because you play their songs and that leads to sales.. thus it's a 50/50 split. But it's not. It would only be a 50/50 split if the songwriters could force the artists, without compensation, to perform/record their songs. Then it would be apples to apples. Artists could perform songs written by others at will.. and Songwriters could compell artists to perform their songs at will. But it doesn't and can never work that way.. thus it isn't ever going to be a 50/50 equal deal. Performers can pick and choose at will what songs they will play. And performers don't have to compensate the writers for those performances.. but the VENUES do. That fee they pay might mean that each performer during the year gets 2 dollars less per show due to the fee, but that's fair.

If you want to play a Taylor Guitar at your shows, someone has to pay Taylor and buy the guitar for you to use. If you want to play a night full of James Taylor songs, someone has to buy the rights to perform the songs you use. That's fair. You can choose NOT to use a Taylor guitar.. and you can choose not to play James Taylor songs. But if you DO choose.. someone should pay for both.

Brian

PS: I also think Graham's premise of people paying 2 dollars per song is ridiculous. That is far more than is reasonable for a performance in a small club. The fees should be based on audience/venue size. Perhaps they can do that in Australia (not sure what the value of a dollar is there, maybe that's part of the confusion) but in the US that would be an excessive fee. 1.91 per night for unlimited live music seems very reasonable to me.

Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
jpfolkspro@gmail.com
Skype: Brian Austin Whitney
Facebook: www.facebook.com/justplainfolks

"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney

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"Sometimes all you have to do to inspire humans to greatness is to give them a reason and opportunity to do something great." -Brian Austin Whitney