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A private little world for me… a private little world for you. The online musings and journals of singer/songwriter recording artist author and activist Ed Hale. The Transcendence Diaries have been posting regularly posting online since 2001. Comments are always welcomed. And so are YOU.

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Transcendence Diaries

Tag: ASCAP

Correcting Some Myths Regarding YouTube Spotify & Artist Compensation

0
September 29, 2014

The always entertaining Bob Lefsetz sent out an otherwise illuminating blog post today entitled “NAPSTER WOULD KILL CREATION AND NO ONE WOULD MAKE MUSIC”. “Otherwise” illuminating because in the first sentence he made a glaring error that is going to just further perpetuate the already pervasive and excruciatingly painful myth with the masses that “it’s okay if we only stream music through all those high tech new services like Beats Music because they’re paying the artists now, right?”. WRONG. They’re not. At least not in a manner that anyone with half a brain would consider anything close to a livable wage. I already knew I would come here to The Diaries and post a rebuttal to straighten out the facts of Bob’s post. But I also decided to write Bob a quick note to ask him to also correct the facts himself. Below is both the first few sentences of his post (PS — subscribe to his blog. It’s almost always worth the read) and my correction of the actual facts.

Below that I have also pasted another blog post of his from a few days ago that deals with the same issue and Thom Yorke’s decision to release his new album on bit torrent. It makes some great points. Again, Lefsetz is completely mistaken in his assertion that “YouTube and Spotify are compensating artists 70% just like iTunes does”. That’s not even close to being true, and it makes one wonder from where he is getting his information. Perhaps he just makes it up to prove his enlightening points? Or perhaps he knows of certain artists at certain large companies who have managed to negotiate completely different terms than almost every other artist in the world today. Not sure. But don’t let the erroneous facts of his post minimize the importance of some of his finer points. They’re cutting edge insightful and almost always entertaining if nothing else. He just happens to be very wrong about the current state of artist compensation in the music business.

“On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Bob Lefsetz <xxxx@xxxx.com> wrote:
NAPSTER WOULD KILL CREATION AND NO ONE WOULD MAKE MUSIC

Just the opposite has happened. With new tools for production and distribution that bring the cost of creating and getting your work out at close to zero it seems like everybody’s got a song in them. More people are making more music than ever before, leaving the audience overwhelmed with productions.

MUSIC IS FREE

It just feels that way.

America’s #1 music service, YouTube, pays rights holders, as does Spotify. Can we stop the mantra that music is free? Sure, piracy exists, but it always did. If you think kids are busy stealing instead of streaming you probably went to the Apple Store to stock up on the discontinued iPod.”

 

Hi Bob.
As you know I’m a fan; often even sharing your posts through my own social media profiles occasionally when I find them extraordinarily prescient or insightful. But you can’t be sending out posts that say things like “YouTube and Spotify are now compensating rights holders” — especially not to what I would guess is largely a musician/music biz exec audience — when these statements are almost entirely untrue. Sure guys like me and others who are buried neck deep in the business and understand how it works understand the finer points of what you are saying, but most people take you at your word and then go to hunt down this $$$ that YouTube and Sp and the like are supposed to be paying them because Bob Lefsetz said so and they come up with nothing. Why? Because as those of us in the biz recognize, YT, SP, Beats and P are “trying” to compensate rights holders to a certain degree, but they have systems set up that are so heinous and prohibitive that it basically means that 99% of artists are NOT being compensated in any way from YouTube, Spotify, Beats or Pandora. Take a little thing they like to call “threshholds”; i.e. YouTube doesn’t pay out unless a song reaches over 500,000 to one million views AND that has to be within the quarter. So even if you get to 499,999 views that quarter you get paid ZERO $$$ from YouTube. ZERO. Now THAT is NOT compensating the artist nor the rights holder. Period. Just pick up the phone and call ASCAP, BMI or SESAC to confirm this fact for God’s sake. It’s common knowledge.

Spotify and Pandora pay us approx .005 to .0007 per stream. As in 500 streams to earn ONE CENT or in the other case 7000 streams to earn one cent. (!!!) So saying “Now that YouTube and Spotify are compensating rights holders…” is completely erroneous and misleading. Not only that, but it then renders the rest of your post less credible. Of course this is just IMHO and I will certainly share my thoughts in the Transcendence Diaries. But rather than have me as “the bearer of truth and light corrections in response to Bob Lefsetz’s erroneous claims”, wouldn’t it be easier (certainly on me) if you just fact-checked before posting? All said with the utmost respect of course as always.

Sincerely,
The Ambassador
The Transcendence Embassy
c/o Dying Van Gogh Records
304 Park Avenue South
11th Floor
New York, NY 10010
800.827.7763
www.dyingvangogh.com
www.edhale.com
www.transcendence.com
www.transcendencediaries.com

 

In the above letter I only point to a very small number of roadblocks that have been built into the new system of the music business that prevent artists and labels from being able to make a living from music creation. There are a TON of them presently. YES the music being created today is as creative and exciting as it’s ever been. But the artists are not just being paid “less than they ever have”, they ARE NOT BEING PAID almost exclusively. This is WHY Radiohead’s Thom Yorke DID decide to release his latest album for free on a flagrant music piracy site — as a statement, as in “fuck all of you if you’re going to stream our music for free allowing these giant new tech companies like Spotify and Beats to profit in the millions while I don’t make shit, I’ll just give my music directly to the FANS!”

U2 decided to do the same thing, choosing instead to sell their new album to Apple so as not to risk putting it out on the market and not achieving any sales. Coldplay used Target. Jay Z used ATT. Artists are nothing if not creative and in this new age of no money for music we are having to be just as creative outside of the studio as we are inside — in an attempt to try to figure out how to squeeze a few nickels out of the fans who very clearly still love our music. That’s right, we totally get that YOU the music lover still love our music and that you’re not directly involved in what’s happening in our industry. I hear it from fans all the time. “I had no idea you weren’t getting paid!” they exclaim. And some even pay that $10 to Spotify or Beats every month. But when these companies are reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in profits per quarter, that should be a tip off to all of us, artist and consumer alike, that there might be a good chance that the artists aren’t getting paid.

So what CAN we do about it? Well, number one, we can always go back to downloading albums from iTunes. Or songs if you like. Yep, iTunes PAYS US. And they pay us well. No complaints from Apple. And they’re still the largest most profitable company on planet earth. Go figure. So next time you hear anyone try to defend Beats, or Spotify or Pandora, in ANY way, regarding their claim that they would be “unable to fairly compensate the artists in the same manner that iTunes does or we’d go bankrupt” just remind them of how many hundreds of millions of dollars they reported earning last quarter. It’s all s smokescreen. They figure that if the consumer doesn’t mind ripping off the artist then they don’t mind profiting from it. And that’s where WE come in.

If you like music, if you love it, if you enjoy it, then shoot off an email to Spotify and Pandora. Let them know that although you’ve been thinking about starting up an account with them, or currently have a paid account with them, you just cannot justify it any longer as long as they are not compensating the artists whose music they are selling. It’s pretty simple. These companies are in the business of SELLING MUSIC. But the problem is that they aren’t BUYING THE MUSIC. In any other world that would be considered criminal. Stealing. And at its eessence that’s exactly what is happening. Legal stealing. Music piracy is already bad enough, but these new streaming services are killing today’s working artists. Ever wonder why they’re starting to appear on singing competition shows as judges? Or cheesy TV commercials? Yep. There’s a reason. Basically because of music streaming services NOT compensating us for our music that they are selling to you the consumer they are forcing musical artists to do anything and everything to try to bring home the bacon. And we’re no longer talking about striking it rich here. We’re talking about just trying to make enough to make a decent living, to pay the bills. That’s what it’s come down to now. I personally make MORE money from buying and selling Pandora stock in a week than I will make from Pandora paying me for streams in an entire quarter. Why? Because no one can make a living from being paid .007 cents per stream.

People complaining about the need to raise the minimum wage have NO idea how much worse it is for musical artists. I would LOVE to be guaranteed a steady stream of income every week from my hard work. But in this ever changing industry, where any moment some new young upstart can grab your entire recorded catalog and throw it up on the internet and call it a new business — completely forgetting to address how the artist will actually be paid, we artists do not have the luxury of anything close to a guaranteed stream of income. It’s potluck now. But again, there IS something that can be done about it. All we have to do is get YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and the rest of them to start paying the artists a decent living wage. It really is that simple. You the consumer will do the rest, as you always have, by consuming the music we make. And as always we are forever grateful to you for that. This isn’t your fault. You just caught in the middle.

 

As always, more later…

 

 

To read the rest of Bob’s (like i said) otherwise brilliant post, go here: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

Current Events, Economics, Music artist compensation, ASCAP, Beats, BMI, Bob Lefsetz, ed hale, royalty rate, SESAC, spotify, Thom Yorke, U2, YouTube

Bummed

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January 7, 2013

[Bummer Warning] Talking with The Poet… Texting actually. I never talk on the phone truth be told. Which is fine it seems because no one else i know does either. We were discussing our recent ASCAP royalty checks. Fucked up and low-balled as usual. Music is the greatest art form in the world to be a part of but it’s the worst f*^king business. I love making music more than anything else i can think of. Nothing gives me more pure unadulterated joy than the simple act of making music, whether alone w just a guitar or piano, or with the band; whether writing and recording new songs and albums, or performing live. There’s nothing like it. But financially it’s a nearly thankless career choice.

We made more $ last year than any other year in the last 25 years of our career and it’s still not enough to make a decent living. Added all up it seems like a large amount. But considering how hard you work and how much money you spend it’s just peanuts compared to so many other careers. Not much else to say. Just bummed. Has to be a better way than this. How much longer can or will Princess Little Tree hang on under these circumstances? I know she had no idea it would be this hard. Frankly neither did I. You would think by now… After all the… But it’s just seems to be an all or nothing kind of business. You’re either making big bank or barely getting by, and nothing really in between. Bummed.

– Posted by The Ambassador using blogpress on an iPhone

Music ASCAP, barely getting by, royalty checks, thankless career choice

Predictability

0
August 26, 2004

We received our first actual check from ASCAP this week. not for much, but a real honest to goodness check. For the last five years we usually just get a letter that says “no royalties were reported this quarter.” Between this and our selection at CMJ marathon and checks coming in from our distributors every month from CD sales, t-shirt sales, and iTunes download sales I am starting to see real progress with this endeavor. Granted, not enough to justify renting limos and staying at the waldorf, but we’re on our way. The dream life is starting to connect to the real life.

Thinking a lot about predictability patterns the last few days. someone falls, they immediately try to get up. reach out your hand to shake someone’s and they will automatically extend theirs in return. point up and most people will look up. touch someone’s left shoulder they will look to their left. If you want to appear famous or important, wear sunglasses indoors. If you want people not to look at you, roll up in a wheelchair. Most people are either day showerers or night showerers. Most people have a set time frame that they are most comfortable going to sleep and waking up. Some people are night owls, and other people are what they call early risers. If you want to create controversy about something, simply tell others that it is ‘rather controversial at the moment’ whether it is or not, it will soon become so.

Pop culture has its patterns. Every generation is repulsed by the decade that preceded it. I assume from how it makes us feel old or worn out or yesterdays news. And then in turn, each generation is obsessed with the generation twenty to twenty five years before it. In the seventies, America was obsessed with the fifties (happy days and lavern and Shirley). In the eighties obsessed with the sixties (the height of the grateful dead mania and the brief return of the Woodstock hippie culture). In the nineties mainstream culture became obsessed with the seventies. All of a sudden disco was in again and the bee gees were cool again. In the two thousands we are just starting to see the resurgence of eighties culture returning to favor, whereas in the last fifteen years you couldn’t get a job if you had anything to do with New Wave or hair bands. Now new wave is making a grand return in bands such as Interpol and franze Ferdinand and modest mouse. Its cool again to sound like that. The Cure just hit the top ten at college radio again. And its going to keep going like this. Already 80’s clubs are becoming all the rage all over America. This will continue through till the late two-thousands when the nineties become the new flavor of the decade in the early twenty-teens.


Hurricanes have a certain predictable pattern to them; this is what prevents a lot more deaths from happening than normally would without our sophisticated tracking equipment. Tornadoes don’t have as much predictability attached to them. but that in itself is a pattern that we will one day be able to use to control them better I believe. Find a way to apply chaos theory to the trajectory of tornadoes and in turn … [just heard yesterday that we can now “seed clouds” in order to get it not to rain in a certain area or town for a few days if we want to. I had no idea we could prevent rain now. wow.] 
Predictability patterns…. Reminds me of the fighting arts. Being a good fighter is all about these patterns. Punch someone in the stomach they will bend over. Kick someone in the shin and they will lift up their leg. You can then kick their other leg out from under them to bring them down. Poke someone in the eyes and they will lift their hands to their face automatically. This will free up their abdominal section. Things like that. good fighters know all the patterns. That’s what makes them a good fighter.

Scream at someone and they will get mad and not hear what you are saying. Ignore them or leave the room or hang up the phone and they will become more angry. Smile at them while they are screaming at you and you can break their pattern of being angry. Usually. 

In debate do not get emotional or your opponent and your audience will lose track of what you are saying and instead respond only to your emotion. The British are masters at maintaining their composure in debate. The Americans are notorious for losing theirs. The Italians take losing your composure to whole new levels. The French make not caring either way an art form.

O.k. A little stream of consciousness stereotyping. Make the Latinos/hispanics mad by insulting their wives or their manhood. Make the Italians mad by insulting their mothers. Make the Muslims mad by insulting their God or religion. Whatever you do, don’t do that, because they’re still beheading people for God sakes. Make the Canadians mad by making fun of their accent. Make the Americans mad by insulting their country or government. Make the blacks mad by insulting their color. I don’t think you can make the Jews mad. They don’t get mad, they only get richer. The English of course don’t get mad. Its something genetic I’m told. You can easily make the French mad by either, one, insulting their food, or two, being American. The Germans are the smartest most educated people among us. And they take a great pride in it. You can try to make them mad by telling them that they are all stupid. But chances are, they won’t take you seriously and instead just laugh at you. growing up speaking four languages before the age of five will do that to you. I suppose you wouldn’t want to make a German mad anyway. We all remember what happened the last time the Germans got really mad. I made a Jamaican mad once by insulting the pot he just sold me, but he forgot what he was mad about like three minutes later.  

From my buddy in Brasil; just interesting, that’s all: “Married life is very different. More responsibility with more fulfillment as well. It’s flying in higher altitudes…My definition of I includes someone else. It’s pretty crazy stuff. Before, if I was OK, everything was OK. Now my challenge is making a bigger cell, that includes Jen, be OK in order to experience the feeling  “everything is OK”. It’s not the easier thing to do, but we are learning a lot and I personally  love that challenge. Once you get to the everything is OK is a much bigger area that is covered. It’s an amazing and new feeling of power.”
Last screening: Paycheck. Typical Hollywood. But a cool ride.

Uncategorized ASCAP

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A private little world for me... a private little world for you. The online musings and journals of singer/songwriter recording artist author and activist Ed Hale. The Transcendence Diaries have been posting regularly online since 2001. Comments are always welcomed. And so are YOU.

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