Loss of Privacy

From Boing Boing:

Baboomska mcGeesk sez, “In 1956, Buddy Holly traveled to Nashville to record several songs. One of the songs he recorded was “That’ll Be The Day”, but the producer assigned to his sessions (Owen Bradley) hated rock n’ roll, and did a terrible job on the song. After that, Buddy traveled to New Mexico and re-recorded “That’ll Be The Day” (the version that became the monster hit) at a different studio with his own (superior) arrangement, but according to his contract with Decca, he couldn’t release it, because Decca owned all rights to his music. He decided to call Decca, to try reason with them, and he secretly taped his conversation. They refused to give him the rights to his own song, but he went ahead and violated his contract. Here is the conversation he secretly taped.”

Sandra Burt, 56, works at A&T Food store in Clackmannanshire, UK and likes to sing while stocking shelves.  She was warned by the Performing Right Society (PRS) that she could be fined for doing so.

Mrs Burt, who describes herself as a Rolling Stones fan, said that despite the initial warning from the PRS, she had been unable to stop herself singing at work.

The village store where Mrs Burt works was contacted by the PRS earlier this year to warn them that a licence was needed to play a radio within earshot of customers.

When the shop owner decided to get rid of the radio as a result, Mrs Burt said she began singing as she worked.

She told the BBC news website: “I would start to sing to myself when I was stacking the shelves just to keep me happy because it was very quiet without the radio.

Naturally, all the publicity has forced the PRS to back down, apologize, and send Mrs. Burt a nice bouquet of flowers.  Remember folks, these are the same people/organization that believes you should pay royalties every time your cell phone rings and force YouTube to pay continued extortion money because its users like to upload videos of themselves singing.

Like many places that sell digital versions of music, iTunes has a short, 30-second clip of a song so that customers can hear a portion of the song before they buy it.  While this has always been categorized under fair use and codified in federal law, the music industry now wants iTunes to pay for that 30 seconds.

At a time when many iTunes shoppers are still fuming over Apple’s first-ever increase in song prices, the demands by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and other performing-rights groups, would likely lead to more price hikes at iTunes. For many, this would also undoubtedly confirm their perception that those overseeing the music industry are greedy.

“We make 9.1 cents off a song sale and that means a whole lot of pennies have to add up before it becomes a bunch of money,” said Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters’ Guild of America. “Yesterday, I received a check for 2 cents. I’m not kidding. People think we’re making a fortune off the Web, but it’s a tiny amount. We need multiple revenue streams or this isn’t going to work.”

If you make 9.1 cents off a song sale, then why did you get a check for 2 cents?  I think you’re lying.  And if you can’t make a living off the songs that you write, then either don’t sell it to people who are going to rip you off, write better stuff, or get another job like most people do when they can’t make ends meet.  I’m not going to sit here and cry for you because you can’t make a living on your own.

iTunes sells roughly 500 million songs per year.  That’s close to $45.5 million and they’re still bitching that’s not enough money for them.

These people already get paid when their music is used in a TV show or a movie.  Then, they get some more cash when it’s played over the radio.  They also force businesses to pay if their song is played in said place of business.  Now, they want more money for iTunes to play a clip so that someone will buy the song and they can get paid again for the digital download.  So, that’s 4 ways they already get paid and they still want more.

In many cases, these artists have signed their rights away to the sync and mechanical in the hopes of getting larger performance fees.  Well, they gambled with their own money by signing away the rights.  It’s their fault, not iTunes or the consumer’s.  They are responsible for getting less money and no one else.

What iTunes should do is shorten their clips to 29 seconds, giving a big, digital middle finger the the music industry.  Without the clip, many people won’t know exactly which song they are looking for and will just skip buying the music altogether.  If that’s how the music industry wants to play it, then hopefully they die a quick death and people can get on with the business of sharing again.

Keep biting the hand that feeds you and, eventually, you’re going to get punched in the face.