Music Modernization Act

[waxman]

Will it help the biz?
https://lieu.house.gov/sites/lieu.house ... %20Act.pdf

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Not sure, but the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has a nice ring to it.

All kidding aside, I generally leave such things to BMI to defend or resist. I need to see the pros and cons of the proposal, not just the proposal abstract.

[FMiguelez]

I've been also getting similar emails from my PRO (SGAE).

Apparently, at least in Europe, they are starting to wage war on the ridiculousness of abusive companies like Spotify, YouTube, etc., fighting for us composers to get our fair share.
It's time we stop filling their pockets with OUR talent, work and money. They make millions while they pay us fractions of a penny. I've signed every petition they've sent my way.

If this mess doesn't get resolved in the next years, it never will, to our own demise.
I still see a future, 100 years from now, where PROs disappeared from this planet. I'm just glad I won't be around then to see this tragedy happening

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I still see a future, 100 years from now, where PROs disappeared from this planet. I'm just glad I won't be around then to see this tragedy happening

Send me your forwarding address and I'll keep you posted.

[mikehalloran]

I still see a future, 100 years from now, where PROs disappeared from this planet. I'm just glad I won't be around then to see this tragedy happening

Yea, you've said that before. If Google, Spotify and the like have their way, you might be right but I don't see it happening.

The PROs are the ones fighting for your rights. If measures like this fail, there will be nothing to protect.

The alternate to the PROs is chaos. Do you know what composers were being paid on performance royalties before that? Somewhere around $0. Herbert v Shanley was only 101 years ago.

Google et all are spending many million$ to institutionalize enough chaos to ensure that that big internet doesn't have to pay anyone.

BTW, it's official as of April 12. ASCAP distributed over $1 Billion in 2017 to our composer/author/publisher members and their estates.

[mikehalloran]

Update:

Minutes ago, the US House of Representatives passed the MMA by 415-0.


Hmmm... shouldn't this thread be in the Business section?

[FMiguelez]

I still see a future, 100 years from now, where PROs disappeared from this planet. I'm just glad I won't be around then to see this tragedy happening

Send me your forwarding address and I'll keep you posted.

I still see a future, 100 years from now, where PROs disappeared from this planet. I'm just glad I won't be around then to see this tragedy happening

Yea, you've said that before. If Google, Spotify and the like have their way, you might be right but I don't see it happening.

I'm probably being a little dramatic, as usual, but most of the signs I see are not positive or even encouraging.

What worries me, is that, despite current efforts by PROs and relevant organizations to change things for the better, I'm afraid it's too little too late, since the wild machine has been in motion for too long, and its get-rich-at-the-expense-of-the-creators momentum seems almost unstoppable. It's an extremely heavy beast.

It would've been easier to change this as the internet developed, but now it's going to be so much harder, if possible at all.
How do we get these multi billion-dollar companies to switch gears and redistribute the money properly? What's our leverage? There will always be some slob or amateur who will accept whatever bad terms are offered to him as long as he "gets a shot", even to the point of giving away all his IP.

Payments are down. For instance, right now, for sync licenses, I'm making less than half than what I used to make 20 freaking years ago! That's TWO DECADES ago! Were it not for the performance royalties, which are still great (and paid in Euros), I'd probably be selling encyclopedias door to door already.

Now the TV stations always want to give you "package deals", where, instead of paying for every sync for every piece for every chapter, now they want carte blanche and set up a dollar amount beforehand regardless of the number of pieces and the number of actual synchronizations. And the tendency is clearly going to the bottom, since they are fighting to remove sync license payments completely. And it won't be long before they succeed. They're clearly almost there.

I understand there are lots of TV networks in the States (i.e., most reality-show stuff) that also do not pay ANY sync licenses at all thanks to some obscure and idiotic blind spot in the current non-laws. And many others are trying to change things to imitate these non-paying entities.

IOW, I see more negative signs than positive regarding all this, and the tendency is clearly towards giving the finger to us, the creators, in favor of greedy corporate gains.

And I haven't even touched any of the online mess, which is much worse and the one that drives this negative tendency...

Add the current under-valuation of music due to ridiculous over saturation of the market, rampant piracy, and excess of participants (remember now everybody with an iPhone is a musician), and no wonder why things are the way they are.

Do you guys really think we can stop the huge momentum of this wild west situation with these mega corporations? With what leverage?
I'm feeling quite pessimistic about it

[mesayre]

I'm certainly not an expert on the topic, but have tried to learn as much as I can.

The circles I run in (a mix of composers, indepedent recording artists, and union musicians) are generally in favor of it, but with some important caveats detailed in this article by the David Wolf, et. al. of Music Answers:

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2018/02/ ... tter-.html

I'm not sure if or how any of those issues have been addressed in the two months since that article was published.

All the organizations I am affiliated with went ahead and endorsed the bill despite these issues, as folks in the know were of the opinion that, should this bill fail, it's unlikely we'd see major copyright legislation for another decade. As much as we may care about it, it's not the kind of legislation that makes a legislator's career. So we were told, anyway.

I haven't decided how I feel about it. I think...it's good?

[mikehalloran]

I read that and many other articles. To address the main concern:

Our belief is that we can and must do better.

Knock yourselves out. It took six years and one hell of a lot of work to get it this far.

In 1998, Congress gave Big Internet a pass to steal everything that wasn't nailed down ... plus a crowbar to pry loose the nails.

No, I don't believe the genie will ever make it back into the bottle but this will help.

I can't write much more about this until I retire.

[waxman]

Read this it will help put a perspective on what the Digital Piracy Parasites and the Technology Companies have done to devastate culture, music and artists.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/ ... -free-ride

[Phil O]

It all makes me sick.

[bayswater]

Read this it will help put a perspective on what the Digital Piracy Parasites and the Technology Companies have done to devastate culture, music and artists.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/ ... -free-ride

That article is nearly 7 years old, and that really makes the point about bottles and genies that aren't going back into them.

We have adults walking among us who have never known a time when you had to pay to get music, books, movies, news or TV shows.

[waxman]

Read this it will help put a perspective on what the Digital Piracy Parasites and the Technology Companies have done to devastate culture, music and artists.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/ ... -free-ride

That article is nearly 7 years old, and that really makes the point about bottles and genies that aren't going back into them.

We have adults walking among us who have never known a time when you had to pay to get music, books, movies, news or TV shows.

Yep nothing has changed since 2002... But there is some traction now for change.

From 1950s to the early 2000’s the business of music and it’s trend-setting culture thrived. Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, The British Invasion, The San Francisco Sound, Motown, NY & LA Hip Hop, Hollywood Metal, Seattle Grunge, Austin Americana and of course Nashville Country music just to name a few. ALL had a common thread… THEY ALL produced a recognizable sound and a unique culture tied to a geographical area.

In 2000 along came the digital piracy parasites…. Who were shortly followed by some crafty technology firms. These two forces crushed the life out of the culture business wiping out the grassroots venues & stages critical to new original music and culture. Policymakers must change it.