Here's another article, given attention by ASCAP in their daily brief, on the whole vexing issue of copyright protection, and by extension, piracy. Because ASCAP is promoting this article in their brief, I can only assume that I'm being asked to take it seriously. And perhaps the article's author, Willem H. Buiter, makes some good points along the way. But some of his points, and in fact one of the big, particularly "scary" points he makes, is patently ludicrous.
Continue reading "More fuel for copyright thought" »
Under the umbrella of Outmusic, there was a workshop for musicians this last Monday at the Center. But the kudos go to the industrious, bottomless-pit-of-energy Jed Ryan for organizing it and making it happen. Thanks, Jed.
The guest speaker was
Phil Putnam, who has done very well for himself in the Indie music world, and was kind enough to offer up some of his hard-earned wisdom. Thanks, Phil.
Continue reading "MySpace and Facebook and Twitter: Oh my!" »
It happened a lot. A composer would take a line from another's work and use it in their own composition. Bach would borrow from Handel. Handel would borrow from Bach. Sometimes entire sets of variations were done on another composer's theme. Variations on a theme by Paganini comes to mind, Brahms being the guilty party. It was actually considered an act of respect to quote from a known piece and make it into something else. I guess they didn't have lawyers around then.
Somehow, somewhere, some lawyer got hold of some musician or composer and convinced them that this "borrowing" was actually stealing. Instead of being honored when someone else uses a part of our work to make something new, we're told, we should be incensed that they are stealing from us. And so the legal profession brings down hundreds of years of musical tradition and creativity. For hundreds of years musicians were able to look to past works as an avenue to inspiration. No longer.
Continue reading "Johann Sebastian Bach: plagiarist and copycat (and Handel too)" »
According to an article at appscout.com, CDs might not be ready for the dust bins quite yet. It seems that around two thirds of the folks out there still paying for music buy CDs exclusively. That's nice. Well, it's better than nice, it's good. Good for us independent musicians still trying to sell our product. Although it has become cheaper over the last few years, it's still a pretty hefty chunk of change to get a CD together. This is good news, if it's reliable.
Continue reading "Maybe CDs aren't quite dead yet" »