JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Collabs are rampant these days!

Hey all,

here's my take. I've read all the posts above and I can't see why different opinions couldn't be true at the same time, at least partially.

Jim says there are lots of crooks in the music business, or in any business for that matter. I don't know that first hand - lucky me! - but i've heard that enough, so: granted.
He says there are people with little musical talent who earn big money: granted.
He says there are people with huge musical talent who can't pay their rents: granted.
He says it's bad for people to be naive and gullible: granted.

Marc says there are people with musical talent who make money out of it: granted.
He says there are people who didn't know anybody in the business at first and didn't have a dime in their pockets who finally came to succeed through talent, hard work, patience and friendliness: granted.
He says there are genuine, honest people in the music business, or in any business for that matter: granted.
He says it's bad for people to keep thinking and talking about what's negative in the world: granted.

So I have no problems reading both posts.

What I'd like to add, though:
when someone thinks and talks negative because they're bitter, it's not the same thing as someone who - out of benevolence - tries to warn you about the dangers of gullibility.
and when someone thinks and talks positive because they're naive, it's not the same thing as someone who - out of benevolence - tries to warn you about the dangers of negativity.

I don't think Jim is bitter. I don't think Marc is naive. I think both look at the musicians and the songwriters' interests with a strong desire to help. At the end of the day, that's what's important for me.

In conclusion: it's not easy, it's not even fair, it's not safe, sometimes it's not even fun. We call it life. We can look at it from different angles and we'll come to different conclusions. I'd rather be happy than clever, but you have to be clever to be happy. So I don't need to be ripped off and I ALSO need to think it's possible to achieve some goals during our existence. Marc never said rip-offs were good, Jim never said it was impossible for talented people to earn respect and some money in the music biz. They're just trying to help music people to achieve some of their goals. Gullibility and a weird sense of the real doesn't help. Constant negativity doesn't help either. We just try our best and see what happens.

PS: what does all of this have to do with collabs anyway?