Posted on 07/15/2019 4:56:43 PM PDT by Kaslin
Big Music has a lot of nerve. After donating millions to far-left Democrats and threatening to sue the Trump campaign for playing popular music despite its holding the necessary license, two of the biggest music conglomerates around, ASCAP and BMI, are now begging the Trump-Barr Department of Justice for less federal oversight. It would be funny if it wasn't also sad and potentially dangerous.
Imagine that you are a small business, like a bar or a coffee shop, and you want to play music for your customers. Rather than negotiating with every individual artist for the right to play their works, the current system requires you to buy blanket rights from ASCAP and BMI, which essentially have a monopoly on such rights. It is not a natural monopoly, either: music publishers banded together into these two organizations, seemingly for the sole purpose of rigging prices upward.
Monopolies, as any capitalist can tell you, are bad, so the DOJ inserted various conditions in antitrust agreements, known as consent decrees, that force ASCAP and BMI to deal with artists and businesses fairly, and which give the federal government the ability to step in when ASCAP and BMI abuse their monopoly position.
So far, so good, right? America hasn't exactly been groaning under the supposed flaws of this system. Last time I checked, the music industry was thriving — especially the fat cats at ASCAP and BMI — and businesses had ready access to popular music at a reasonable cost.
So why fix a system that isn't broken? Simple: because Big Music can always imagine making more money, and, if it requires pulling a fast one on the American people and Bill Barr, they won't bat an eyelash.
ASCAP and BMI argue that, despite the fact that the DOJ reviewed the music marketplace three years ago and found no reason to change the existing antitrust agreements, now is the time to upend the music industry and remove the constraints that have prevented them from price-gouging all these years. These companies know that the Trump-Barr regime is generally favorable to business and opposed to government regulation, so presumably they feel that this is the perfect opportunity to transform their regulated monopoly into an unregulated one. Brilliant!
Removing these agreements, which prevent discrimination in the issuance of licenses, will just give these monopoly businesses more leeway to victimize conservatives. Moreover, if history is any indication, the extra profits from their excused price-gouging will not go to everyday songwriters and creators of music, but by and large to the music publishers and the music elite that have already made a habit of robbing them blind.
While Barr has yet to weigh in on the fight, the Antitrust Division alarmingly opened a review into these decrees in June, just months after ASCAP and BMI made their big push.
The music industry is one of the great American success stories. While many traditional American industries have withered, from steel to textiles to consumer electronics, intellectual property, including artistic content like music, remains in high demand, and no country on Earth produces that content as well and in such great quantities as the USA.
If the DOJ monkeys with the existing structure that governs the music industry, therefore, it would risk killing the goose that lay the golden egg: American music dominance. Thousands of artists, and hundreds of thousands of people who work in the industry, would have their livelihoods jeopardized, and a major element of American popular culture would be changed forever.
With the Music Modernization Act, Congress has already spoken out against a hasty revision to the terms that govern the music industry, insisting that it be kept in the loop. It's time for the American people to add their voice to this chorus.
Contact Bill Barr and tell him that weakening federal oversight over ASCAP and BMI would be a big mistake.
I really don’t know what to say except what these commies did to country music should be a capital crime.
The radio station I work for pays ASCAP and BMI over $8,000 per year for the rights to play music over the air, plus an additional $2,000 or so for the station to be streamed over the internet (free live radio for listeners).
Amen.
Let alone the de-countryization of the genre, it has become infested with a liberal mindset.
Note what they did to Mike Huckabee a few years ago.
Not good.
That does not seem unreasonable. Tough subject. Tough industry if you are a musician. My royalty checks through Google have been a pittance, but then I do not practice the secret handshake.
I listen to classic country on XM.
For me, country music started dying in the mid 80s.
Any new legislation should lower the barriers to compete with ASCAP and BMI as well.
Well it’s a good thing I listen to heavy metal.
I don’t think it is unreasonable either. That’s how artists and song writers get paid.
What are the rates for DJs who play at dances or for solo entertainers.
First of all, any time we read an article where the author uses the phrase "fat cats signal flares should automatically fire. I expect that kind of bromide from Antifa. Strike one.
Second, this alleged Ph.D holder says
Monopolies, as any capitalist can tell you, are bad,
WRONG. Capitalists believe there are some industries where costs are so vast (i.e. Electric power generation) that economies of scale are only achievable via one producer. Thus monopolies aren't "bad." Strike two.
Finally, the writer's beef should be with publishers - or maybe songwriters' agents - and not BMI and ASCAP. Usually, if a musician is signed to a label, the contract mandates that their publishing and/or mechanical rights will be signed over to the label's publishing arm. That publishing arm typically splits the royalties 50/50. ASCAP and BMI are collection agencies. If you want writers to get more money, speak to the labels or publishers or the agents encouraging such lousy deals. Called third strike.
I really don’t know what to say except what these commies did to country music should be a capital crime.
They sound tired but they don’t sound Haggard.
amen
My opinion:
New Wave abd Punk killed Country Rock.
Country became Pop and filled the void.
It depends on the venue and the crowd size.
Not only is it expensive, it is a pain to document it all.
Thanks.
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