How ASCAP Takes Money From Successful Indie Artists And Gives It To Giant Rock Stars

[UNORTHODOX]

ASCAP seemed like the best choice until I came across this article.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...ie-artists-gives-it-to-giant-rock-stars.shtml

Heads up to those researching and those already involved

 

[drex]

Good post.
Is there a serious hip hop musicians union?

 

[LP*]

Good post.
It's pretty messed up that money is taken from the Indie artists, and then given to the most popular ones, like they need the money lol... doesn't make much sense.

 

[Formant024]

The top 200 get what they earn, they're not getting more than they should. ASCAP themselve sit on what's left after paying the top200 and use that to speculate for profits. They wont call it speculating for profit, they will call it "investing on internet technology for the benefit of perfecting digital music distribution"...

We had that shit too, the dutch ASCAP is called BUMA/STEMRA which you need to collect royalties when youre music becomes exploited by 3rd parties. My fam had a store too, if you want to have a radio in your store you have to pay a fee to cover the exploit. Funny thing is, the store was selling moroccan design furniture and the music we had on disc was bought from bedouin musician in the Sinaï... they dont pay BUMA/STEMRA and they wont receive royalties so where does the money go ?

Another example; a producer created some library music and comes to find out that a private bureau (BREIN- hunts down piracy of all sorts sponsored by BUMA/STEMRA and the major labels in the netherlands) had used a piece of music to accompany the anti-piracy message used before the intro of all dutch dvd's for the last 10 years or so.
He pays for his BUMA/STEMRA in order to receive his royalties and thus contacts them to collect. For the first several attempts he receives no feedback at all and considering the irony of the matter he decides to contact a well known radio dj and explain the issue.
The dj calls up the contact @ BUMA/STEMRA and presents himself as the producers manager and asks why his client is not being paid out. He mentioned that he calculated that the amount of royalties sums up to 3 million euro. The contact than states that he can make the issue come before the council in their weekly meeting for a third of the producer's profit... This was aired live on the radio lol

To me shit is all the same, eventualy these people work for the major labels and are in to gain profit through a scheme, supported by the governments. Even those in the top 200 get scammed except for those in the top20...damn jews

 

[slik da relic]

good read, which leads me to ask, "is BMI doin the same thing?"

da relic

 

[UNORTHODOX]

Good post.
Is there a serious hip hop musicians union?

There NEEDs to be. Seriously. It would help in alot of areas besides thhis. Music doesnt meed anymore shady biz practices and murky standards.

Good post.
It's pretty messed up that money is taken from the Indie artists, and then given to the most popular ones, like they need the money lol... doesn't make much sense.

All for the love of money. Also helps to keep those top earners and big names around

..
We had that shit too, the dutch ASCAP is called BUMA/STEMRA which you need to collect royalties when youre music becomes exploited by 3rd parties. My fam had a store too, if you want to have a radio in your store you have to pay a fee to cover the exploit. Funny thing is, the store was selling moroccan design furniture and the music we had on disc was bought from bedouin musician in the Sinaï... they dont pay BUMA/STEMRA and they wont receive royalties so where does the money go ?
(-)
To me shit is all the same, eventualy these people work for the major labels and are in to gain profit through a scheme, supported by the governments. Even those in the top 200 get scammed except for those in the top20...damn jews

Interesting stories, Form. It wouldnt be the 1st time heads of an industry work together to game the system. Unfortunately its kind of a monopoly, but public humiliation always helps lol

good read, which leads me to ask, "is BMI doin the same thing?"

Yea, I'd be surprised if they werent actually

 

[StressWon]

Good post.
Is there a serious hip hop musicians union?

Not that I know of, and lets be real, we can't unite as a culture let alone on some business. Jay, Puff, 50,,,u can bet your life that a portion of their money goes to a white man at the edn of the day. It's the American way.

 

[thedreampolice]

So, I am an ASCAP artist and my friend and main writing partner is an BMI artist. And we have had both our asses saved by them and been fucked over by them. First off, if you are a serous artist and are trying to make a living in music you belong to one of these organisations PERIOD. (or the non-us equivalent) And yes BMI is just as bad!

Here are a few stories

First off, I license a ton of music on the cheap for limited distribution IE under 3000 listens. If it is more than 3000 the license fee goes up. Who tells me when it goes over 3000? That's right ASCAP, and it has gotten me more money than I would have known about. HOWEVER listen to this.

BMI is known (and ASCAP) to just show up a local bars an demand a performance fee if there is ANY live music performed at the bar. The fee can be over 12k a year to the bar (and people wonder why live music is struggling) so when the band I was in with my writing partner Aaron (Ivory Hill is the band http://ivoryhill.us/ http://tinyurl.com/c9cptc7) was approached by a decent size bar to perform we where stoked, but then the bar owner told us about how BMI had basically black mailed them, and used both fear and intimidation tactics to try and extort them to pay the fee. The bar owner refused and STOPPED playing live music all together. Man this sucks. So since Aaron is an BMI artist and own's all the copy writes himself to the Ivory Hill songs we drew up a contract with the bar giving them permission to use our copy written material in the venue for any reason, basically forever. Man BMI really pissed me off. Needless to say the band was a huge hit at the venue and we got asked back over and over and it became a steady gig. So one night the BMI thug rolled in and started talking smack. Man it pissed me off so I said "Listen we are a BMI artist and you work for us!" "We don't do any covers and own the rights to our songs, and we have a contract giving this venue express permission to use our songs!" "SO GTFO!" and there was not much else he could do at that point.

So yea its a crazy world!

 

[slik da relic]

Good post.
Is there a serious hip hop musicians union?

this is/was something i was involved in for 5 yrs... it was doin well, i was getting paid shows, and i was opening up for bigger artists (Mr Cheeks, Papoose, Tech) but we needed more Artists to help out... eventually, i had to slow down (kjids, work, my own projects) and drop out... M1, Immortal Technique and a few others are still involved i believe... check it out:

also, when u click on "artist union" the guy rhymin with the "No.88" jersey is me... lol... ahhh.. memories.

http://kickgame.com/

da relic

 

[Formant024]

So, I am an ASCAP artist and my friend and main writing partner is an BMI artist. And we have had both our asses saved by them and been fucked over by them. First off, if you are a serous artist and are trying to make a living in music you belong to one of these organisations PERIOD. (or the non-us equivalent) And yes BMI is just as bad!

Here are a few stories

First off, I license a ton of music on the cheap for limited distribution IE under 3000 listens. If it is more than 3000 the license fee goes up. Who tells me when it goes over 3000? That's right ASCAP, and it has gotten me more money than I would have known about. HOWEVER listen to this.

BMI is known (and ASCAP) to just show up a local bars an demand a performance fee if there is ANY live music performed at the bar. The fee can be over 12k a year to the bar (and people wonder why live music is struggling) so when the band I was in with my writing partner Aaron (Ivory Hill is the band http://ivoryhill.us/ http://tinyurl.com/c9cptc7) was approached by a decent size bar to perform we where stoked, but then the bar owner told us about how BMI had basically black mailed them, and used both fear and intimidation tactics to try and extort them to pay the fee. The bar owner refused and STOPPED playing live music all together. Man this sucks. So since Aaron is an BMI artist and own's all the copy writes himself to the Ivory Hill songs we drew up a contract with the bar giving them permission to use our copy written material in the venue for any reason, basically forever. Man BMI really pissed me off. Needless to say the band was a huge hit at the venue and we got asked back over and over and it became a steady gig. So one night the BMI thug rolled in and started talking smack. Man it pissed me off so I said "Listen we are a BMI artist and you work for us!" "We don't do any covers and own the rights to our songs, and we have a contract giving this venue express permission to use our songs!" "SO GTFO!" and there was not much else he could do at that point.

So yea its a crazy world!

i had thought about this too, this should always be a contract option indeed. Basicly, the only thing ASCAP/BMI should account for are exploits beyond the reach of your capabilities since you collect on the venue itself.