BLANCHE

Whoever you are…I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

From A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams

Songwriters earn a sizable percentage of their ever decreasing income from mechanical royalties.  Until the last few years, mechanical royalties were almost always licensed under direct licenses to record companies that incorporated by reference the statutory license provisions of Section 115 of the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act and the corresponding regulations.  Section 115 is a direct–and almost word for word–descendant of Section 1(e) of the 1909 U.S. Copyright Act.

Why so little change in nearly 70 years?  Until 2000 or so, nobody used statutory licenses except in the rarest of circumstances.  Instead, the statutory license became something like the Uniform Partnership Act or the Uniform Commercial Code.  It could be used for reference but was often–almost always–modified in a direct license.

The main point that was added in these…

Chris Castle interviews Blake Morgan, head of ECR Music Group and the force behind the #irespectmusic campaign on Pandora, IRFA and the campaign for artist pay for radio play.

Theme music by Guy Forsyth.

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“Put all your eggs in one basket, and then WATCH that basket.”

From Pudd’nhead Wilson and Other Tales by Mark Twain

At the intersection of “Too Cute By Half” and “Stupid Stanford Tricks,” we find Silicon Valley darlings, Goldieblox.  What do they teach them at Stanford, anyway?

In a gracious–and supremely undeserved–act of kindness, the Beastie Boys agreed to dismiss the lawsuit (Goldieblox Dismissal) that Goldieblox brought against them.  If I had to guess, I would guess that the paying party was probably not just Goldieblox, but that’s because I always thought that Goldieblox was engaged in marketing by lawsuit and got extraordinarily bad advice.

The unanswered questions in this case are many, but I think they’ll just have to go into that mysteries of life pile unless Goldieblox just cannot keep it buttoned and there’s a better than 50/50 chance of that.

First, what did Intuit…

I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But everybody wants you
To be just like them
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more

From Maggie’s Farm by Bob Dylan
Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music
(Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/maggies-farm#ixzz2w2uoNmHA)

YouTube routinely delivers random advertising for a variety of products against artist videos (either the “official” video or user generated versions of the artist’s work).  This means that artists have lost control of a…