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Shaggy and not amused with BMI. If onlyI had a T-1000 at my disposal.
I do a pub blog for a friends' joint. We were called today and harassed by BMI reps over wording I'd used regarding an independent musicians' form of jazz. I'd published on the site exactly what had been told to me. The man would play "jazz classics."
BMI is demanding a ridiculous sum of money from the pub now under the argument that if a musician really is playing a jazz classic, its rights must be owned by someone so give BMI a buttload of money and they'd find the rights holder.
Uh-huh.
Further making the situation worse, I'd provided a link to the record company of a band that plays regularly at the pub, and that website has posted some yet-to-be-mixed tracks for a future album. Among those numbers is a Johnny Cash tune (appropriately enough involving a prison in the title). BMI is using that as fodder against the pub, that band, and that record company.
So I've had to go through and cut out all sorts of stuff. Idiotic.
I thought in coming back to blogging I'd try to mind my language, but I'm going to make an exception and get Oedipal on them: "Mother fuckers!"
UPDATE: I feel a little better when I read about stupid people doing stupid things. The man in this story probably has real mental issues, but today I'm just going to imagine he's an ordinary idiot. He probably works for BMI.
-cK
posted by cK at 11:04 fm
6 Comments:
funny! the word verification letters awaiting me are "htrge", or, if you like to add vowels, as I do, "hot rage", which is describes your righteous fury at the asininity that is BMI and their ilk. good god (if you're trying to mind your language, I suppose I will, too, though I think you're more than justified in using rude words), how do the BMI employees keep a straight face while spouting such nonsense?
on the bright side, I've discovered a new edible dish at my hotel restaurant- the salmon & chive cakes with a sweet/hot chili sauce are quite tasty.
Speaking as a musician, I get disappointed when those in the music industry get wrapped up in the wordiness of the art. While I feel it's crucial that musician's rights are protected, sometimes people loose track of what's really important. It's too bad when such a pure art gets tainted by greed. Keep your head up, cK, you've done nothing wrong:)
Awww. Thanks, Joy and Mips. You're good souls.
Joy: Mmm. I wish I could eat salmon!
And Mips: I do support artists' rights, but I have no faith in BMI. They don't support smaller musicians. (I know many who have never received even a penny in royalties yet from whom BMI has drawn income.) They support Metallica and pay-for-play radio bands. And they sue regular listeners, bars and bands--the very people who make music an art that can be shared with a community.
It's disgusting what people will do for money now adays.
Many a perfect ballet has been quashed by BMI types seeking assloads of cash for the rights.
Too right cK...Motherfuckers.
It's especially ironic that their undies were bunched by "jazz classics"; jazz has always been about appropriation. A lot of cheesy Tin Pan Alley and Broadway tunes would have gone quietly to their graves if jazz musicians hadn't picked them up and made them swing.
BMI is about accountants, not artists. Keep up the good fight!
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