Tom noted that NME is reporting that the Deal sisters played a Breeders comeback show in LA last night. As Tom said, this is big news for all right-thinking people.
Just posted
on the Nantha’s Kitchen website:
Tonight! ONE NIGHT STAND, Montreal’s Experimental Comedy Showcase with The Bionic Yahoos, Mike Paterson, Derick Lengwenus, Sona Karnick, James Morovic and Special Musical Guest Stephen Barry. Hosted by Dave Rosen. The show starts at 8:00 pm (Doors open at 7:30). Admission $5 with proceeds going to the Old Brewery Mission.
This new Napster
-Bertelsmann (BMG) deal is pretty cool, and if it’s a blanket deal including “immunity” for songs already being served up by Napster users then I think it stands a good chance of success. I would definitely pay $60 for the ability to continue to use Napster in a relatively unfettered way. Essentially, under this plan Napster becomes a personal copyright clearinghouse, serving consumers as ASCAP or SOCAN serve radio stations and others who present music commercially.
The problem, though, is the same as when a newspaper I used to freelance for decided it wanted to put its content online. The problem was they hadn’t bought that right from me – they’d only bought the right to first publication. I would have been more than happy to allow them to put it online as well, or in a CD-ROM archive – but my price for such usage is different in that case – and they weren’t interested in paying me that rate, they wanted the same rate. So the question that remains to me is – are the artists going to be paid by Bertelsmann for this? Or is it just added to their deals for no additional consideration?
I think it’s
interesting that so many (now) San Franciscans who keep weblogs like Canadian music like Sloan and the Tragically Hip. Although both are fine bands with long histories, in general they are very poorly known and appreciated in the US. I wonder if I can read anything deeper into the coincidence? Probably not a good idea.
My brother, who lives in New York, told me a funny story about going to see 54:40. They were just at the tail end of a long tour – and in Canada they’ll easily fill a large hall with 2000 people or more. So they show up at a smaller place and start setting up – and their guitar techs and roadies and whatnot (not a ton of these guys, but enough) worked hard to get it all set. They’re an all-pro band. My brother was there early and overheard the bartender say, “who the fuck do these guys think they are with their entourage?” Which was pretty funny, and somewhat telling.
A huge band here (the Hip will sell out arenas and stadiums, no problem, and charge just less than Sarah McLachlan for a night) often books a 200 seat bar in many cities in the States.
The use of freelancers’
material on the web (and in other electronic media) without additional payment has been a huge issue in Montreal for some time, but hasn’t received a whole lot of coverage. Editor and Publisher Online reports today that Freelancers are picketing the Boston Globe, and I’m sure similar things have happened throughout North America. The newspaper business, in my experience, is playing hardball on this one – at least that was the case here. It’s interesting in the context of the Napster debate, because it shows the differences between how copyrights are handled. Freelance journalists generally only sell a license for first publication, but newspapers want to extend that (thus cutting into potential sales to other papers) without additional payment. In the music biz, the record company buys the copyright itself, so presumably any additional revenue stream won’t make a difference in the amount they pay the artists. That should be an issue but it isn’t.
