When ASCAP/BMI/SESAC stops demanding payments from the little coffee shops where kids have to sing all original all night long because 3k a year really is more than they can afford, so they have to take up donations to pay for covers, maybe there will be some semblance of sanity on both ends of the copyright wars. I went to a brew pub where four songwriters held the stage for two hours for maybe and audience of five and only one of those not a girlfriend of a performer. All paid up. Then I went to the college coffee shop where it was packed wall to wall with kids with guitars and one gay guy with a ukelele, hot as hell, kids sprawling down the sidewalk, puny PA, no organization but a scribbled sign up list, and they were singing their hearts out. For free. No covers. They can't afford them.
As the twig is bent, David, so grows the tree. I've spent time fighting for the Bigs because the tech industry of which I've been a part is ripping the artists off. Yet there is so much frikkin' greed that they can't cut those kids a break. And maybe that's karma because if those kids keep singing their own songs in one generation they will forget the Moptops, flower power, and grunge. They will remember Jason Mraz, Isbell, maybe even some Peter Paul and Mary, but they will say to hell with the collection agencies who cannot cut them a break, who force them to beg for tips to pay the vig. You want their support? Talk to the Boys and tell them to set a tier for collections. Quit robbing piggy banks. If the music matters that much, then let the backyard gardens grow. That is where the new music is coming from and they don't need you, they don't need Taplin who calls them second rate and they don't need T-Bone Burnett who only "works with the best". They are the future and if you can't help them when they need help, then to hell with you. You don't matter. You're done. But if you do, then maybe there is a coming generation that will see to it the right thing happens. Your choice
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