Author: Trichordist Editor

Trichordist Editor

Getting the Government Out of Songwriting: Voluntary Licenses Should Replace Consent Decrees or Compulsory Licenses

This is an absolute MUST READ for all songwriters.

Music Technology Policy

[Editor Charlie sez, this article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.]

Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is holding a useful series of thought provoking hearings before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet reviewing the current state of the U.S. Copyright Act. The most recent hearing in this series was on September 18, entitled “The Role of Voluntary Agreements in the U.S. Intellectual Property System“.

This is a very important subject to songwriters. It is not widely known that songwriters are highly regulated by the government through two primary mechanisms — the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees dating from the middle of the last century and the compulsory mechanical license dating from 1909. The Congress should consider abandoning both in favor of voluntary licenses.

Terminate the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees

ASCAP and BMI each grant blanket licenses for the exclusive right to publicly perform…

View original post 626 more words

by Trichordist Editor

Google attacked by MPs over failure to curb music and film piracy | The Guardian UK

Company accused of ‘derisory’ attempts to stop many illegal downloads amid concerns over level of influence in coalition

Google will be criticised by MPs for making “derisory” attempts to curb music and film piracy and using its “perceived power and influence” at the heart of David Cameron’s government to shore up its position.

The Commons culture, media and sport select committee accused the search engine of offering the thinnest of excuses to avoid taking action against widespread piracy, a problem that the committee claimed is costing the creative industries millions of pounds in lost revenue a year.

Tory MP John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee, said his fellow MPs were “unimpressed by Google’s continued failure to stop directing consumers to illegal, copyright infringing material on the flimsy excuse that some of the sites may also host some legal content. The continuing promotion of illegal content through search engines is simply unacceptable, and efforts to stop it have so far been derisory.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/26/google-mps-music-film-piracy

by Trichordist Editor

Kim Dotcom slammed as ‘chubby Che Guevara’ at music body the BPI’s annual general meeting | The Gaurdian UK

We’ve recently posted about the number of artists speaking out about being exploited by internet corporations. Here are some recent rumblings from across the pond…

Former Longpigs star and current co-CEO of Featured Artists Coalition Crispin Hunt calls for labels to reveal Megaupload mogul ‘as the self-interested privateer that he is’

“No artist with anything worth saying wants to live in a medieval world of cottage industry that Kim Dotcom and co prescribe, retraining as a plumber in the day and making bedroom albums, uploaded to an ocean of mediocrity along with the 10,000 other works of genius uploaded to SoundCloud every day, eking a living from selling CDs and t-shirts at poorly-attended gigs, peopled by an audience of well-wishing friends, who all crowdfunded their mates’ albums, exhausted at the choice of 30 gigs a night to see in Norwich alone, and bored by the endless tours of ageing dads on stage who would much rather be settled down watching Later with the kids than donning Paul Weller-style Indie Man Hair and flogging around the toilets of Britain in a splitter, whilst some kid rips the life-work of their youth from HulkShare because he wants to spend his money on Gran Turismo 25.”

READ THE FULL STORY AT THE GUARDIAN UK:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/04/kim-dotcom-crispin-hunt-piracy-bpi

by Trichordist Editor

The Lie is Falling – Dr. Price sizes the Piracy Universe | Illusion Of More

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Butch (Paul Newman) sits astride his horse outside the same boxcar of the same train he’s successfully robbed over and over.  Frustrated by the railroad owner’s ceaseless but futile attempts to thwart the hold-ups, Butch proclaims, “If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him!”  Of course it isn’t true, is it?  Neither the character nor probably the real Butch Cassidy would likely have given up the life he knew for something as boring as just money.

If you wanted to watch this classic film directed by George Roy Hill right now, you could do so on Netflix or Amazon Prime or rent it from iTunes for four bucks. None of these innovations existed just a few years ago, and those who have repeatedly insisted that they “only use pirate sites because affordable, flexible, online alternatives don’t exist” are starting to sound a little dumb.  This is especially true as of yesterday, with the release of a new report by Dr. David Price of London-based NetNames, entitled Sizing the piracy universe.

READ THE FULL POST AT THE ILLUSION OF MORE:
http://illusionofmore.com/piracy_universe/

by Trichordist Editor

Xbox Music : Microsoft to Pay The Most of Any Music Streaming Service?

This could get interesting. Digital Music News reports “The Xbox Music streaming service is venturing into iOS and Android platforms, as well as free internet streaming, with newly adorned with apps and features. The Web service will provide on-demand access to 30 million songs, with an ad-free subscription or ad-supported free use.”

What makes this even more interesting is that Microsoft appears to be paying more than any other streaming service that we know of  (we don’t know what Itunes Radio is paying yet).

Faza at The Cynical Musician wrote this:

A Quickie: XBox Music Royalties

Since this is streaming money, there’s not a lot of it, but the rate is absolutely astounding: the latest statement pegs a stream at 3.6 cents. Yep, you read that right: several cents a pop. Traditionally, I’ll do a quick stream-to-download calculation which works out at 18 XBox Music streams to one iTunes download (both numbers for songs to which we own the entirety of rights, making CD Baby the only middle-man – they take a commission of 9% I believe).

It’s a sign of the times when we get excited by a per stream rate of 3.6 cents…

by Trichordist Editor

Search Engines = G.P.S. for Online Piracy | Vox Indie

More great work from VoxIndie!

I don’t need a study to prove that search engines are an integral force in fueling online piracy, but since the piracy debate is awash in dueling studies I’ll happily chime in on the subject again.

Last week Google published a report–a characteristically self-congratulatory piece of fluff–declaring themselves to be a leader  in the fight against piracy and that took great pains to deny the significance of “search” in maintaining the online pirate economy.  The report repeated claims made in a recent study (published by a consortium of tech giants including Google) that it’s poor SEO techniques that are the problem–not search engines.

READ THE FULL POST AT VOX INDIE:

by Trichordist Editor

UnSound : New Film Explores Artists Rights in The Digital Age (Video Clip)

From the forthcoming documentary Unsound: Bad Religion guitarist and Epitaph Records founder Brett Gurewitz talks about how large tech corporations make millions of dollars selling advertising- essentially making people the product, without them even realizing. The promise of free or cheap music is often used to draw eyeballs to websites, apps, and social networking platforms, allowing corporations to make large amounts of money from advertising. The public is generally unaware and happy to have free/cheap music, corporations make tons of money from advertising, but how is the musician benefiting from this?

LEARN MORE HERE:
https://www.facebook.com/unsoundthemovie

Unsound uncovers the dramatic collapse of the music industry and its impact on musicians and creators of all kinds trying to survive in the ‘age of free’.

by Trichordist Editor

Announcing The Content Creators Coalition | Brooklyn NYC Meeting Sept 24th

A new Artists Rights collective is forming by Artists & Creators, for Artists & Creators.

There is a group meeting in Brooklyn on Sept. 24th.

Sign up here to get more details about the CCC and request meeting information:
http://contentcreatorscoalition.org

WHO WE ARE
A dedicated group of artists, creators, and stakeholders are forming a new and unprecedented coalition. This coalition will allow the people who create the content that powers the web — recording artists, songwriters, journalists, filmmakers, producers, photographers, visual artists, and performers — to join together and exercise their collective voice in shaping the future of their industries.

If you are a professional artist, manager, or creator of what is often described as ‘content’, please join us. Sign up on our email list and we will contact you soon with details on how you can get involved.

WHY WE ARE ORGANIZING
Creators of all content have the right to a collective voice. We are joining together to represent the interests of participating creators in order to reshape our industries into fair and sustainable environments.

HOW WE FUNCTION
We are presently developing the legal, organizational, and technical infrastructure to create a unique organization for creators: one that harnesses the advantages of a representational and participatory structure and provides a platform for members to suggest actions, provide feedback, and vote directly in coalition campaigns.

CCC MISSION STATEMENT
We believe that individual artists cannot be expected to negotiate with corporations the economic size of nation-states. As professional creators of cultural content we join together to aggregate our power and to represent our interests in discussions and decisions that not only impact our ability to thrive from our work but, also enrich society with the benefits of a flourishing creative economy.

by Trichordist Editor