Here’s something to consider. Laws are in place at some point for a reason. These laws may be archaic by today’s technological points and require review but the ultimate goal of most of them remains the same. Performance royalties are completely vested in the interest of the composer and artist, not the BIG WIG Record Companies. These licenses and royalty fees are what allow some artists to continue making a living or at the very least continue making music even if they hold down a day job. A very cool artist from Hamilton, Ontario (where I’m from and my band The Entertainment plays out of) called Wax Mannequin is a great example of this. First of all check this guys music out. It really is fantastic stuff! Point I’m getting to with Wax as an example is his commitment to his craft. This guy has released at least three full length albums that I can think of and continues to tour every summer, but he holds down a day job throughout most of the year as a teacher. Why? We all have to pay the bills. But he is not giving up on his art which is the most important part. Just the other day I heard one of his songs in a made for TV movie. I’m sure that one license for inclusion with that project helped fund a good portion of his next record and/or tour. It probably helped his standing with regards to gaining any grant support from FACTOR as well. (FACTOR is a grant fund supported by the Canadian government for the benefit of Canadian music and arts) Now moving with Fred’s point, had I not known that this was Wax I never would have looked him up. There wasn’t enough of the song to really get me involved as there was dialogue going on at the same time.

Granted this is a film example and not radio based. Yes radio is a great way to get some promotion and there actually are internet broadcasters out there already that are exclusively interested in supporting independant content. Radio Rock Cafe is a fine example http://www.radiorockcafe.com. The owners/operators of Radio Rock are also SOCAN supporters and pay their SOCAN fees so all artists played will have an opportunity to gain from their performance royalties. This is support for these artists and the owners/operators are more than happy to provide it.

Ultimately we’re in this to try and make a living. Where are things moving who knows. I personally think we need to start looking at the past in order to move forward. Before the recording industry really got booming artists were making money off of performance almost exclusively in a smaller area. This I think is the way artists should be moving. We need to set up smaller areas for more regular touring within say a couple of hours of home. This will keep costs down allowing artists to get home if needed without the need for a hotel. Recordings will start to become more promotional based so we should be taking it on ourselves to keep costs as low as possible. Run our own business and don’t expect the huge returns off of record sales. Bands won’t be able to pull a Beatles and stop touring to work exclusively on recording to make a living. However if there’s no return on recording whatsoever it becomes a lost cause. This is why there’s benefit in these licenses and royalties, even though they do require review. We still need to make money in whatever way possible. The day of the multi-million dollar amking mega stars are over though folks so let’s look at a modest career of hopefully 60-100k a year per band member.

Due to this freedom that’s created though artists will once again be able to run their art. No longer will businessmen and execs be force feeding us what they “think” is good music. Artists will be free to do as they please. The greatest pieces of art were made under complete diress. Most of the greatest artists never were able to really enjoy the spoils of the fruit they gave to the world, but they continued to toil and torment over their work because it gave them purpose. Now we read/listen/watch some of these pieces of art and gain something out of them for ourselves which is the artists ultimate gift. In the end it is what we create that will live on as we are destined to die. Since all we can rely on is death and taxes at least if we aren’t making much money as artists we certainly are paying that much back to THE MAN!

As a bit of an end to this little ranting comment I would recommend finding some of the last interviews/articles with George Harrison. There was an article run in I believe Rolling Stone or possibly Revolver dealing with the release of Yellow Submarine Songtrack reissue from 1998 or 1999 where Harrison predicts a lot of what we are debating right now. Artists doing things themselves. He makes comment to some of his favourite music from the 20’s/30’s/40’s that is completely pure. It was the dawn of the recording age and these pieces had no technological production value but are examples of just great art. Good songwriting by composers and players with no boundaries or corporate influence. It was Harrison’s opinion that the world needed to get back to this methodology. No longer creating music to simply sell to the masses based on trends or fads. If this could happen then the world may very well start to become a better place as people will hopefully gain more from listening to art that is uninhibited.