StompBoxBlues
Member
- Messages
- 20,636
I am requesting we don't even get into plans for the future on this thread, but just...it's going to get worse.
If you search TGP, and if you Google, no matter what, on "copyright cover songs" etc. you will quickly see over and over, that not many musicians even understand, and that is a lot of uncertainty surrounding all this.
Add to that, that many feel justified in ignoring all of that, I am certain there are a huge number of folks that would LOVE to comply, but that the whole system is messed up to a point that is confusing, and not reasonable.
When a bar band, playing cover, plays a bar....I have always had the understanding that the bar itself has the duty to pay a license fee (to Harry Fox? or ASCAP, or somewhere...) to cover the cost of a band playing cover songs. I don't know how many bars ACTUALLY do this, and not even certain about it, but I believe it is so.
Don't know if tribute bands have any special fees to the band they tribute..
I do know that Youtube is FILLED with live versions (as well as direct copies of songs, where they just have a pic of the album) of bands covering other folks songs. Little bands, solo guys, pedal demo guys, and BIG name bands too (like govt Mule)...
TONS of them. Yet Youtube has a policy that (often apparently if they start getting a lot of hits on the video) they will close accounts of anyone covering songs...yet they are all over Youtube.
I won't go into a long thing here about my own views, but will say, I BUY music, usually even still CD's, and I don't download free. I don't even use Spotify. I totally believe if I want to hear someones music, which means I like what they do, I'm not going to screw them and not pay for it.
That said, it also seems to me the current system is unfair, and even more, it hurts them, themselves!
Think about it, I can buy a song of a person for X dollars (one or two) but if I want to try and do my version of their song...well, you fill out lots of forms (first have to somehow find out WHO, which company owns the rights, which you have to pay, etc.) and maybe even pay thousands of dollars for our pathetic little attempt to play some song we really love.
Wouldn't it be smarter for them to make this easy as hell for us musicians? I mean, why aren't they working WITH Youtube, to collect say 3 bucks for someone to do a version of their song?
We who also write songs, know damned well, we ought to get compensated IF people want those songs, but I think it gets ridiculous that we can stop any and all that may even do parodies of our songs, or do them better (are they afriad of that) or terrible versions... many songwriters say themselves, the songs just "come" to them, and many sound like other songs, there aren't so many truly original ones...at the rate we're going, soon you won't even be able to write a song (surprised no corporation has set a supercomputer to write every song possibility and copyright it, so they'd own all combinations of musical notes, words, songs) without infringing.
I fear the laws coming down the pike will make this even worse, but as it has been for the last 20 years, it's VERY hard for someone that wants to be fair, compensate (but 2500 dollars to be able to post my own version of "Brown Sugar" or whatever...isn't that a little nuts?) the artist, to afford or even find out how to do it. I know someone will say "it isn't 2500, it is only 35" but that is not so as far as I can tell. When publishing on the net, it is seen as broadcasting and a whole other pay scale, depending on expected listens...etc. comes into play.
This system is messed up.
If you search TGP, and if you Google, no matter what, on "copyright cover songs" etc. you will quickly see over and over, that not many musicians even understand, and that is a lot of uncertainty surrounding all this.
Add to that, that many feel justified in ignoring all of that, I am certain there are a huge number of folks that would LOVE to comply, but that the whole system is messed up to a point that is confusing, and not reasonable.
When a bar band, playing cover, plays a bar....I have always had the understanding that the bar itself has the duty to pay a license fee (to Harry Fox? or ASCAP, or somewhere...) to cover the cost of a band playing cover songs. I don't know how many bars ACTUALLY do this, and not even certain about it, but I believe it is so.
Don't know if tribute bands have any special fees to the band they tribute..
I do know that Youtube is FILLED with live versions (as well as direct copies of songs, where they just have a pic of the album) of bands covering other folks songs. Little bands, solo guys, pedal demo guys, and BIG name bands too (like govt Mule)...
TONS of them. Yet Youtube has a policy that (often apparently if they start getting a lot of hits on the video) they will close accounts of anyone covering songs...yet they are all over Youtube.
I won't go into a long thing here about my own views, but will say, I BUY music, usually even still CD's, and I don't download free. I don't even use Spotify. I totally believe if I want to hear someones music, which means I like what they do, I'm not going to screw them and not pay for it.
That said, it also seems to me the current system is unfair, and even more, it hurts them, themselves!
Think about it, I can buy a song of a person for X dollars (one or two) but if I want to try and do my version of their song...well, you fill out lots of forms (first have to somehow find out WHO, which company owns the rights, which you have to pay, etc.) and maybe even pay thousands of dollars for our pathetic little attempt to play some song we really love.
Wouldn't it be smarter for them to make this easy as hell for us musicians? I mean, why aren't they working WITH Youtube, to collect say 3 bucks for someone to do a version of their song?
We who also write songs, know damned well, we ought to get compensated IF people want those songs, but I think it gets ridiculous that we can stop any and all that may even do parodies of our songs, or do them better (are they afriad of that) or terrible versions... many songwriters say themselves, the songs just "come" to them, and many sound like other songs, there aren't so many truly original ones...at the rate we're going, soon you won't even be able to write a song (surprised no corporation has set a supercomputer to write every song possibility and copyright it, so they'd own all combinations of musical notes, words, songs) without infringing.
I fear the laws coming down the pike will make this even worse, but as it has been for the last 20 years, it's VERY hard for someone that wants to be fair, compensate (but 2500 dollars to be able to post my own version of "Brown Sugar" or whatever...isn't that a little nuts?) the artist, to afford or even find out how to do it. I know someone will say "it isn't 2500, it is only 35" but that is not so as far as I can tell. When publishing on the net, it is seen as broadcasting and a whole other pay scale, depending on expected listens...etc. comes into play.
This system is messed up.