was at my corner coffe shop last night, met a friend up there, and was looking forward to hearing the wednesday night local band do their rendition of stairway to heaven or an indigo girls tune. i walked up and sitting at the table outside was a small cluster of women that caught my attention due to the packed up instruments and sour expressions, and i thought "now, what could really be that bad?"
inside, my friend had already arrived and was considering her options of cold drinks. i leaned onto the counter and looked down at a newly added sign that read "we are sad to report that as of now, all live music has been suspended until further notice"
the barista in charge on wednesday, a face familiar from a number of years of working coffee bars and running open mic/live music selections was on duty and i said "kevin, why?" he says to me that the big recording companies had been contracting out to local agencias to approach local coffee shops and bars to demand royalties for bands playing covers and that this particular coffee shop couldnt afford the payment, and so could no longer offer live music
having dome some research, it appears that they technically cant even have a football game on without having to pay royalties for the theme song to 'monday night football" (which i didnt even know existed, let alone pay attention to)
i believe that for most bands, sharing the love of music and keeping it live, even if its a terrible newly minte\d high school garage band playing the worst rendition of "smeels like teen spirit" ever, is what its all about....too bad that the big guys, instead of finding a new way to address the money leak from the inter-net bound self producing individuals that are the future of music 9(think radioheads magnificent move to offer their album at consumer set price), they are taking the joy of music away from all
peace out all
Song of the day:
2 comments:
That is really sad. Maybe that's why you had the sad dream above about seeing people you knew from Jackie's. All these songs and live bands are going to be missed by the community.
hmmm, thats a whole different aspect then i would have thought of....and it is really sad
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