The Songwriters Association of Canada's Eddie Schwartz has an opinion piece in the Mark News calling for the legalization of file sharing and the adoption of a new voluntary fee system.
SAC: Legalize File Sharing
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We don’t need distributors anymore!
P2P, filesharing, decentralized networks mean we don’t need to rely upon distributors anymore.
If artists would append metadata to their media about how we could compensate them I’m sure they’d gain quite a bit from it.
Ah, wasn’t the ISP levy asked for a couple of years ago? He is asking for the same thing as was brought up before, and shot down by many before. Perhaps if he posed it as an opt-in fee system it may go further, but I thought that negative option billing was illegal in Canada.
Been here, done that. Epic fail.
First of all we already have a tax on CD’s etc that was supposed to go to artists. I don’t think a singe cent has ever actually made it to an artist. Radio stations in Canada have been forced to play “Canadian” music for as long as I have been around. Every time they get a spin on the radio they get paid.
We have also brought in several taxes to create TV programming. Result? Fail again. And every year they are back asking for another tax on top of all the existing taxes. So this year it’s $4-$5, next year $6-$7 the year after .. rinse, repeat.
Musicians were starving long before there was an internet. This new idea that every musician should be able to retire after writing one song and every musician should be a millionaire is nauseating. I am all for the musicians breaking free of the leeches that are the record companies. I know the history of the buisness and there is really no place for the traditional record companies any more.
If you are any good as a musician you will always be able to find a way to monetize yourself. That may be merchandising rather than selling your music directly but if your good some one will always want a piece. Besides bands like Nine Inch Nails have made good money with out a tax or a record company. As the traditional record companies go away I expect to see a new breed of company sprouting up that will help musicians monetize them selves. However unlike the existing record companies no one will be able to create a monopoly and screw both the artists and the consumers.