SONGWRITERS ATTENTION!: New Royalty rate for streaming is a JOKE! We need to DECERTIFY the joke known as the musicians union, and go on a worldwide strike! TOTAL MUSICAL EMBARGO! F.U PAY ME!!!

Well............whooopdef***king doooooo!

Let's all make like Jagger and Bowie and do some homoerotic-paisley-styling dancing in the streets!

Guess what my fellow songwriters!

The Copywriter board has ruled to increase our mechanical royalty rate (Streaming) from 10% to 15

OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS!

This contemptible human hemeroids aren't satisfied with giving it to us "deliverance" style (Go watch the movie if you don't get the reference, and if you do, then just go ahead and cancel any camping plans you've made)

They want to make us squeal like a pig while they're at it!

And let me tell you, I"M SQUEALING!

WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Good god, this is just for the writers share, so if you're signed to a label (and 90% of my catalog was released under a record deal with a label) then 50% comes off the top to whoever owns the master recording (Whoever paid to have the song recorded owns the masters) so no were down to 15% of 50%

Which is 7.5 %!

And we won't even get there for FIVE YEARS!

Here's what I don't understand....

When I license a song, if I wrote 100% then I get 100% of the writers share (50%)

If I own the masters then I get the synch fee and the master fee. 50% + 50% = 100%

I've licensed countless original songs to TV and film, going back to my very first composing gig, writing a cabaret song for HIGHLANDER "The series" when I was 17, since then I've licensed tunes to major network shows, a Quinten Tarintino film (No it wasn't pulp fiction you a$$) serval other major films, Composed original cues for COUNTLESS reality shows (I'm taking hundreds, if not into the thousands, and I'm only counting the stuff that got USED) did a good portion of SPIKE TV's new line-up for last season, blah blah.....put it this way, I've been around the block.....or rather, I've paddled around the lake in my canoe (Serriously watch the movie)

I've been screwed every which way you can take it, but THIS???

In case the problem is registering with you let me break it down like this....If we, the songwriters are currently getting 10% of 50% (7.5%)

THEN WHO THE HELL IS TAKING THE OTHER 92.5%!!!!!!

PEOPLE WHO DIDN'T WRITE THE F**G SONG! THAT'S WHO!

So, now they tell us were going to get another 1% a year!??!?!? OVER 5 years?!?!?!?!?!

WEEEEEEEEE!!!!! (Movie, watch it....but don't stream it or whoever did the music won't get PAID!)

Seriously, I know the business is a joke right now, you have guys in big bands RETIRING because they can't make enough money to feed their family's,

The library business has moved on from composers to "stem kits" where the editor can now piece together his own cue using parts of yours and anyone else's that are lying around.

(BTW I did contribute to that, about 3-4 years ago, the networks were no longer interested in cue they wanted STEMS, and boy did I give it to them, At the time I was like "Whatever...pay me" Now? I see that I was putting composers out of work if you are currently composing for a TV  series and they are asking for stems only...

STOP GIVING IT TO THEM, they only want them so they won't have to pay you next time.

I honestly think the music business (What's left of it) is run by the dumbest crooks in the pen.

There's a musicians union! I belong to it! Not because I want to or because they are of any use what so ever, they are simply an extortion front, who set themselves up as the gatekeepers to things (Like touring Visas) that don't REQUIRE a gatekeeper, they are a scam, they sit there and say:

"Nope, can't have that unless you are a union member in good standing"

At this point, you have to pay ALL YOUR RETROACTIVE BACK DUES!!! And for what?!?!

NOTHING! They do NOTHING! While we get insulted and abused by this 5% of 50% over 5-year B.S

They do NOTHING!!!!

Listen, though I don't buy into the whole right-left B.S, I do have beliefs that are somewhat libertarian and would, therefore, be called "Right-wing"

I'm NOT a fan of unions and organized labor, there was a time and a place when they were absolutely necessary, but that time passed AGES ago, not they are greedy lazy leeches trying to get as much as they can for as little work as possible...

.....but right now, I feel like the musicians union needs to be DECERTIFIED! (We can do that you know?)

A new union set up, and have a total and complete shutdown of ALL MUSICAL SERVICES

From little Johnny and the jerk-offs all the way up to The Rolling Stones and Metallica, total touring and musical output EMBARGO

SHUT THIS DOWN L.A.M.F!!! (To borrow a phrase from the late great Johnny Thunders)

Let's tell them we will return musical services to them at a rate of 1% a year over 5 years...

.....I mean, that's fair.....right?

Make the music business YOUR bitch! Safety word? MONEY!

   
Recently read an article on "Making it" in the Nashville music world. I know nothing about Nashville by I know a fair bit about being a professional composer/Song-writer. Here's what I say to the cowboys scavenging for the elusive "Deal"


Hey! WANNA-BE!  ............just stop

I'm talking to those whimpering toadies who scour facebook and  try to befriend music row employees are worse yet hang out where they have lunch and attempt to start awkward and completely unprofessional  "random encounters" (Not that kind) to try and forge some phoney social bond with the person who they think holds the keys to the cookie jar. I will admitT.  I have zero experience in Nashville, but from what I've been told it's similar to L.A where I have tons of experience. and in L.A one of the worst tricks in the book is for a social climber to join Alcoholics Anonymous and take advantage of the social support network, trying to use it to further their career instead. 

I would imagine Nashville has some of that as well. One type of climber you may not have in Nashville is the "Fake" or "Industry Jew" I don't know if  Nashville music is Jewish controlled, I do not believe it is, but in Los Angeles,  the power brokers,  everyone from the top executives and nearly everyone on down is Jewish, Enter the phenomenon of "Industry Jews" these are people who are as Jewish as Dolph Lundgren (Asshole) but attend Temple and claim Judaism as their religion only to further their career. It is the fake Alcoholics and Jews I have the least tolerance for, you can feel their presence in a room and it poison's the atmosphere. But they have one redeeming quality in that most of them (Except the real sociopaths, beware, they are there) These people, when pressed will more often than not, admit what it is they are trying to do. And in a world where the divide between the haves and have-nots increases daily, I understand why they try, I believe the efforts are misdirected and counter-productive, but big points to anyone who is full of S$#t and will admit it.

Unfortunately some people are full of shit and won't admit it.

I'm talking about a lot of would-be Professional Nashville songwriters. There is a certain type I've encountered that tries to pretend being an unsuccessful songwriter is somehow a noble and romantic fate, and that being  one they are like Jesus, remaining impoverished while bestowing upon the world the redeeming power of their music (Which no one is hearing). They feel lack of success qualifies them for sainthood and future generations will revere their martyrdom. S

everyone wants to be successful in their chosen field, "I'd rather work 2 jobs?"Gimme a break! And that by being unsuccessful that means you are glorifying god? Oh PLEASE! Some make it some don't some have intermittent success, I'm not in the NAS scene but I make my living writing elsewhere. You want the answer? Here it is....

ALWAYS be ready to walk out on this business if it doesn't deliver what you've worked for, NEVER be sitting around waiting for scraps from the music biz, it's waaaay too fickle a mistress, and doesn't care if you starve. You must stay in a position of power and never let it think you need it for anything. Then Pitch your goods (Which you should be working on and improving everyday) when the opportunity presents itself, forget what "Music row" thinks proper conduct i.s if you care about that you have let them into a position of power in your life that they never should have been allowed into. 

People can sense whether you are bringing them something that can help them, or if you are a simpering sycophant waiting to be "made famous" NEVER be the latter. Today I suggest you quit music for good, let the dream die. Go find your fortune in any other l businesses available on this earth. But do not quit CREATING music. Do that everyday. be disciplined, don't make it #1 but make it a consistent daily effort. When you feel you have something, contact a music attorney about shopping it, if everyone turns you down....

YOU SUCK..congratulations! But you will not be broke or broken, plus you just go away for another year and write another batch of songs, songs you can AFFORD to demo, to bring to a lawyer you can AFFORD to see for the first visit (NEVER pay them to shop after the first visit, if they are paid they won't do it well.) this business isn't that complicated, but the reality of it must be accepted and the pitfalls avoided. And the major pitfall is being financially dependent it. Do it this way and you won't give a s#$t what music business gate keepers think of anything you do, and you shouldn't, you rate THEIR clothing and see if it suits YOU. DON'T give your power away to people who didn't want it in the first place.