War is Stupid and Performance Rights Organizations are Stupid
August 5, 2017 11:04 AM   Subscribe

Three weeks ago, Congress proposed a global, centralized music database to ensure that artists get paid on every streaming platform. And, every other platform — digital, physical, and analog — for that matter. It was an ambitious first step. But just one of several competing database initiatives. And the beginning of a pernicious intra-industry war.
posted by gusottertrout (12 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
This couldn't possibly disadvantage young and new artists in any possible way, or turn into a way for labels to screw artists. {/}
posted by strixus at 11:43 AM on August 5, 2017 [9 favorites]


It should be done in the private market, not by the government, and it should be done industry-wide, not in a fragmented way. We will be on the losing side of history if we count on the preservation of a music licensing system where ownership information is treated as a confidential valuable commodity.

"We will take the basket of cabbages across the river and when we return the wolf should not have eaten the goat."
posted by 7segment at 11:45 AM on August 5, 2017 [13 favorites]


Two weeks and it'll be cloned and torrented.

Do the corporate holders of egregious intellectual property assets have any grasp of the technological changes churning through the world? I was just talking to a recording engineer and when the discussion veered into storage his comment was "it's basically free". All the music a person will ever listen an entire lifetime can fit on a thumb drive.

The value of a random sequence of bits or an exquisite performance is a complex valuation question, the availability, storage and transmission cost is marginally zero. The only real value of a music distributor is convenience and marketing. Both vital to the artists and audience but does the value equation work out long term?
posted by sammyo at 11:49 AM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


It is stupid, but it's an unfortunate reality for those of us who work in the industry face. If you choose not to take part in the PROs, all the money that comes out on the back end (performing in concerts, radio play, broadcast in film) goes into a pool of uncollected funds. Those uncollected funds are then divided by a few major labels.

In short, the system is stupid, but as artists/labels we have to participate to get paid.
posted by iamck at 11:54 AM on August 5, 2017 [4 favorites]


PRO's do kinda suck, but one of them paid a band on the old label I used to run over a grand for online performance royalties once and I believe that was the biggest paycheck those artists ever earned. So seconding that you do what you have to sometimes.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:39 PM on August 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


Two weeks and it'll be cloned and torrented.

The proposal is for a big list of who has copyright of what song, not for a depository of the songs themselves.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:49 PM on August 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


I'll be glad when the blowback on egregious copyright terms happens.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 3:02 PM on August 5, 2017 [1 favorite]


The proposal is for a big list of who has copyright of what song, not for a depository of the songs themselves.

and it should be easy to update and track updates when the copyright holder changes, or the copyright expires. like real estate titles.

oh, right...
posted by j_curiouser at 4:11 PM on August 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


Congressman Sensenbrenner personally blasted the move.

Then I approve of anything he dislikes.
posted by mephron at 4:33 PM on August 5, 2017




[Previously, by MeFi's own ftrain.]
posted by runcifex at 1:15 AM on August 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


One of my favorite schadenfreude-isms in recent memory is when the director of Chile's artist rights extorsion collection association was giving a public presentation when his laptop pops up a big warning that his copy of Windows is pirated.
Lost his job the next day. Genius.
posted by signal at 2:19 PM on August 6, 2017 [2 favorites]


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