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Money, money, money … in the music business, there seems to be little left for the songwriters that fuel it. ABBA co-founder Björn Ulvaeus calls for the industry to support its most valuable asset, breaking down how the streaming revolution impacts creator royalties, careers and craft — and outlines what can be done to truly thank artists for the music.
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Transcriber:
I’d like to start with a quote,
but it’s very embarrassing because
I don’t know where it comes from.
But it’s very well put,
and it goes like this:
“Copyright is designed not only
to provide fairness for authors,
but also to enhance
the quality of life within a society
by promoting the progress
of science, art and culture.”
In other words,
the concept of making it economically
feasible for creators to create
is now globally recognized
as a social imperative.
I have very few memories
writing lyrics to songs.
But there is a particular one
from long ago that I do remember.
I was lying on my stomach on a bed
in a small guest room
with a writing pad in front of me.
In the master bedroom next door,
my then wife, Agnetha,
was sleeping undisturbed.
The music was playing in my head,
so no need for speakers,
not even headphones.
A melody that still lacks words
is virgin territory
upon which a lyricist must tread lightly.
Some of the time,
the final words on the page
are the result of hard work, deep thought
and the intuition that a songwriter
must learn to trust.
But sometimes,
extraordinary things happen;
closed curtains are suddenly drawn,
and the melody speaks to you
and starts to conjure up images
and even sequences of events.
All you have to do is write it down,
write down what you witnessed.
A song can come to its creator
in bits and pieces.
But when it once in a while appears
out of thin air in its entirety,
it seems to suggest it had already
lingered there, God knows how long,
perhaps impatiently waiting
to be plucked down
by someone with a keen and sensitive ear,
as if it needed the right vessel
to flow through
from the realm of ideas
all the way down to earth.
I was deliriously happy
when I had finished.
At that moment, I was grateful
for music itself,
for the sheer existence of this elusive,
undefinable phenomenon
that seems to ignore our brains
and go straight to our hearts.
I wanted to sing it out loud,
but it was two o’clock in the morning,
and even in my euphoria,
I had the good sense not to wake the woman
who was to sing my words the next day.
If Benny Andersson and I
had written that song today,
you might not have gotten to hear it.
It could have been
just another lost dream,
[one of] about 80,000 new songs
uploaded to streaming services
every single day.
The competition today is fierce,
much fiercer than it was back in 1977.
And even if our song had been clicked
very often by Spotify subscribers,
chances are slim that the royalties
would have paid anyone’s rent.
So what I want to talk to you about today
is how I see the changes
in the song economy
using my perspective of what
it was like to be a songwriter
when the music industry was simpler
and perhaps more predictable.
These days, everything
is tracked by our data.
And data from streaming tells us
that listeners much more often
click their favorite song
than their favorite artist
on a streaming service.
Sometimes they’re not even sure
who it is they’re listening to,
if it’s a playlist, for example.
So if we’re paying more attention
to the song, though,
what about the songwriter?
Songwriters have been
forced into the back seat,
and I would even say,
bungled into the trunk.
My concern is that songwriters are at risk
of becoming invisible victims
of the change that is taking place.
The music business is now a song economy.
Yet the creators of the songs that fuel it
get the smallest slice of the pie.
How did that happen?
I am not, for one moment, about to suggest
that we should turn back the clock,
which you may have suspected
from an old pop star.
But what’s happened in the last decade
has the potential to be
incredibly positive for songwriters.
Now, instead, I’m going to describe
the unintended consequences
of the streaming revolution,
how they are reshaping
the lives of songwriters.
And then, I will present some proposals
for how the impact of these unintended
consequences can be addressed.
It has never been a better time
to be writing and making music.
Anyone today has the potential
to find a global audience,
and if they so choose,
they can even try to do that on their own,
without a record label or music publisher.
A whole music software
industry is emerging,
serving the needs of a new generation
of artists and songwriters.
Streaming has enabled
this new music paradigm.
Once the pandemic stopped
live music in 2020,
many artists realized that they couldn’t
pay their bills on streaming alone.
Some have moved back in
with their parents,
and others are driving Ubers
to make ends meet.
Previously, streaming had more or less
been promotion for their tours,
and live appearances, by far providing
most of their revenue.
It’s funny, but it was exactly
the opposite for Abba in the 70s.
We hardly toured at all,
and when we did, we lost money.
But, I mean, the touring was supposed
to be promotion for the album
so that didn’t matter.
And I can’t recall that we ever complained
about the size of our royalties,
which the artists, during
the pandemic, have done bitterly,
when streaming and royalties suddenly
were the only source of income.
“If this is the impact
on artists,” I thought,
“welcome to the world of songwriters.”
Most professional songwriters don’t tour,
they don’t sell T-shirts
or other merchandise …
They rely on the song itself.
But even that seems to be changing,
because the song has evolved
in response to streaming,
and it’s increasingly common
for record labels
to get large teams of songwriters
to work together,
creating almost genetically modified hits.
Songs are written and structured in ways
that are optimized for the algorithms
that streaming services use
to decide what music you and I listen to.
Some research has been done
to suggest that these days,
a Billboard Top 10 hit has,
on average, five songwriters —
not one or two, but five —
and sometimes even 10.
And on top of this, they’re having
to write more songs and more quickly,
simply to keep up
with the insatiable demand
for new music that streaming creates.
After ABBA had won the Eurovision Song
Contest in 1974 with “Waterloo,”
royalties suddenly came pouring in,
and Benny and I could afford
to write songs full time,
nine-to-five.
That made such a huge difference.
We could afford to throw away
95 percent of what we wrote
and just keep the very, very best.
We learned how to recognize garbage,
and that’s essential
if you want to get good at your craft.
Royalties simply gave us time
and creative freedom.
Needless to say, you will have neither
if you’re in a hurry and someone
is breathing down your neck all the time.
The industrial approach to songwriting
is making it harder
for many songwriters to build
sustainable careers.
Those that are successful
are very successful,
but those in the layers below,
who used to be able to make
a living from songwriting,
are really suffering.
They are becoming parts of a system
that they serve more than it serves them.
And here are three key pain points.
Firstly, streaming services typically
pay out about four times more
for the recording
than they do the composition,
which means a streaming income
is even smaller for songwriters
than it is for artists.
It’s a legacy from the past,
when recordings and the packaging
of physical products were very expensive,
so a larger share
for the recording was justified.
But that has changed.
But the change has not yet been reflected
in the division of royalties.
Secondly,
even the way that streaming services
pay royalties is problematic.
A listener’s monthly 9.99 subscription
goes into a central pot,
which then gets divided by the total
number of streams that month.
That decides the value
of one stream, or listen.
This means that you if you have
streamed Arne Jansen’s jazz trio,
if you have done that 50 times
in the past month,
and the neighbor’s teenage daughter
has streamed Justin Bieber 5,000 times,
only a small fraction of your 9.99
will go to Arne Jansen.
Nothing wrong with Justin Bieber,
but how does that reward
your favorite artist?
And thirdly, bad metadata
is a big problem,
metadata being the relevant information
about a song and its recording.
Very often, recordings are injected
into a streaming service
without accurate data.
The name of the writer
is missing, for instance.
That means that the streaming service
doesn’t know where to send the royalties,
and the money is put
in a so-called “black box.”
Just sits there.
Recently,
20 streaming services
distributed 424 million dollars
to a US nonprofit organization,
which is supposed to try and find
the rightful recipients of all that money.
It will take years —
if they ever find them.
The combination of all
these issues and others
are creating a perfect storm
for songwriters.
Over the last decade, I’ve watched
this situation get progressively worse.
And during the past five years,
I’ve been engaged in projects
that aim to do something about it.
So how can I help?
Well, first of all,
I have you all here today listening to me,
and that’s, of course, what I want
to do — to raise awareness.
But I want to do more than just
raise awareness of the issues.
I also want to help the industry
identify solutions.
And here are a few suggestions,
out of many.
One: fan-centric royalties.
In order to ensure
that all songwriters get paid fairly,
I suggest that streaming services
allocate their royalty payments
based on the behavior
of individual listeners.
The individual description should be
divided by the number of songs
the individual listener
has played during a month.
That gives each song a value.
If the subscription is 9.99,
and the listener has played
10 Arne Jansen, again,
songs that month,
each song has the value
of .99, almost a dollar,
and that’s the amount
that will be paid to Arne Jansen.
Under the current system,
you can be sure that Arne would get
the value of .00-something dollars.
So this fan-centric approach to royalties
will bring much-needed fairness
and can build on the important starts
made by Deezer and SoundCloud.
But perhaps the simplest
and most effective way
to improve streaming royalties
would be for streaming services
to increase how much they charge.
Streaming pricing has been stuck at
ridiculous 9.99 for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, Netflix seems
to increase its pricing every week.
Research shows that
subscribers will pay more;
9.99 could quite easily become 11.99,
perhaps even 12.99.
And thirdly: the tedious but absolutely
necessary registration.
Wherever the 80,000 new songs per day
make their entry into the music industry,
there should be user-friendly
registration portals
to make sure that relevant information
about the work is captured early.
This would diminish the problem
with black boxes and conflicts.
In my view, it is an obligation
for collecting societies,
who collect creators’ royalties at source,
to modernize and to adapt
their technology to the digital age.
I know it’s easy for me
to stand here in front of you
and reel off a list of suggestions
for the industry —
much easier than making
these changes happen.
But change does need to happen,
and soon.
Crucially, this change needs
to be brought about
by the music industry as a whole,
each part working together.
The song and the songwriter
fuel everything,
from the recording
through to live performances,
even a T-shirt would not sell
if the band hadn’t good songs.
I have created memories
to some of those songs,
from the Everly Brothers
and then the Beatles,
Elton John and many more,
songs that sometimes would surprise me
with a stab of ending,
quickly washed away by their sheer beauty
and the inspiration that they gave me.
I know what they mean
and what they meant to me.
I’ve often wondered:
What would we be without music?
Less human, I’m convinced of that.
If we couldn’t hear music,
then what else would we be deaf to?
But we never seem to think about that,
even though music is all around us
all of the time.
This is the moment for the entire
music industry to invest in supporting
what is, without a doubt,
its most valuable asset.
Far too many songwriters out there
are suffering in this creaking system.
Solutions like those that I have outlined
could help rebalance the song economy
so that more songwriters
and their listeners
will be able to lean back
and say, in all honesty,
exactly what I said in the song that I
was talking about in the beginning:
“Thank you for the music.”
Science & Technology4 years ago
CNET4 years ago
Wired5 years ago
People & Blogs3 years ago
Wired5 years ago
Wired5 years ago
Wired5 years ago
CNET5 years ago
msprav18
July 23, 2021 at 3:20 pm
He’s literally done a Ted talk on a topic I was going to write an article about for a blog. Loved this
Cryptameria•
July 23, 2021 at 3:23 pm
I have seen the shift over the pandemic and I really appreciate this talk.Thank you for being bold and honest. These are facts that people don’t think about when looking at music. We need a better system. I think if more people realized that their payments didn’t go to the right places, that their subscriptions didn’t support their artists there will be a change. How can you help. You already have. Like and share!
Johnjohn42 Kudi
July 23, 2021 at 3:24 pm
Going to watch.
William Passfield
July 23, 2021 at 3:30 pm
Bjorn is a very intelligent, insightful and engaging person to listen to. A musical genius sent from the Father 🙂
Rick Sturgis
July 23, 2021 at 10:30 pm
What father? His?
Punith H K
July 23, 2021 at 3:33 pm
People: Artists must be paid more ✊✊✊. So tell me what we should do to make that happen
Speaker: Let’s increase the streaming price to $12.99
People: Well…not that.
Harjawaldar
July 23, 2021 at 3:37 pm
I still buy and listen to CDs because I like albums and high quality audio
lolwho
July 23, 2021 at 4:54 pm
Only CD does not really offer hi-quality sound.
Harjawaldar
July 23, 2021 at 6:18 pm
@lolwho better than spotify streams; 1411kbps vs 320kbps
SUCCESS SYSTEMS
July 23, 2021 at 3:49 pm
*Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you have faced, all the battles you have won, and all the fears you have overcome* 🙏:)
Regular Original
July 23, 2021 at 4:22 pm
This was one of the better TED Talks in a while, honestly.
pvtpain66k
July 23, 2021 at 4:27 pm
If Napster taught us anything it’s that the vast majority of people only know a song by it’s name or some tagline & have no fucking clue who the artist is.
“Somebody’s watching me” still has Youtube links for Michael Jackson, when the artist is Rockwell.
Quentin Moorman
July 23, 2021 at 5:09 pm
I agree, in many cases, lyrics aren’t as impactful as we’d think. The melody, hook and a few lines blend together to make it catchy.
Neumah
July 23, 2021 at 6:02 pm
@Quentin Moorman The only reason the lyrics aren’t as impactful is because we lead lives where we don’t have time to really listen. Our minds are always busy with something else, if we’re not slaving away at work we’re checking for new tweets, tiktoks or whatever the new fads are.
Enkeria
July 23, 2021 at 4:56 pm
Music streaming is forbidden now, since DMCA is a thing. Which to me, is a very stupid thing. Not even the author of the music can play it without strikes. Its insane. My music is free for all, no DMCA, and people can use it freely. They dont even need to pay me for it, thats how much I dislike DMCA.
jackhappens
July 23, 2021 at 4:59 pm
As it is now, the Spotify royalty model is nonsensical. Per Ulvaeus’ example, why is my subscription money going to Justin Bieber instead of the artists I listen to? “Free” listeners are supported by the ads, so why isn’t my money going to the artists and songs I value?
Rahim Rahim
July 24, 2021 at 3:21 am
😎😎🙂
Kris B
July 24, 2021 at 11:41 am
oh dear, i think youve misunderstood everything, do you tie your own laces in the morning?
jackhappens
July 24, 2021 at 12:13 pm
@Kris B Did he not say if someone listens to Bieber 5K times, and I listen to my artist 100 times, more of my money goes to Bieber when though I don’t listen to him? What didn’t I understand?
Danilo gonçalves
July 23, 2021 at 5:01 pm
I don’t know. It seems to me like a supply and demand issue. Maybe songwriting is not a viable job anymore. To me, the three solutions seem a naive approach to the problem. Specially raise the price of the service. But it was nice to be more aware of the issue. If there is a problem, there is a solution as well =)
verysmartname
July 23, 2021 at 5:38 pm
Artists don’t do art because it is viable. They do it because they must. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be paid for their job. If there are artists (singers, musicians) who are millionaire superstars then there seems to be a lot of demand. The problem is people who are not artists are used to having music and film and any kind of art just existing. But for it to exist the people who do it have to have the means, the time and the conditions to do it. The solution is to give more culture to the people, specially the children. Have them try art, doing it, understanding it, valuing it. Then they won’t think that a 11.90 subscription to an infinite amount of works of art (of different levels of quality, genres etc) is an unfair price. But this is a long term solution. Any short term ideas will seem crazy to those who don’t value what they are receiving.
Jieun Hong
July 23, 2021 at 5:21 pm
Music copyright should be more appreciated! In fact, the copyright can be turned into stocks and can be sold or purchased. I’m Korean, and as Kpop is getting bigger and bigger, we have music copyright stocks shared on the platform called Musicow. Copyright is split to numerous stocks, and users can purchase and sell them. Then, users get royalty monthly. The more that music is listened by the public, the higher royalty users get (obviously). Live music also counts, music played on other platforms such as YouTube or TV also counts. They will go toward users’ royalty. US should establish this system too! Lots of fans purchse stocks to support their singers or to have that proud sensation of partially owning their favorite songs. Some purchase certain music stock because they know that song is great but is just underrated as of now. Fans are hoping more people will recognize that amazing song and become popular. Then, the retail price of that song will go up. People will gladly “invest in” music.
Nicklas Lif
July 23, 2021 at 5:23 pm
👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️
Carmine Masi
July 23, 2021 at 5:35 pm
Excellent Ted talk.
Đông Xuân
July 23, 2021 at 6:07 pm
am vietname
Louis Young
July 23, 2021 at 7:33 pm
There are variations of these problems in other creative industries (books, films, etc.) as well. Thank you for bringing this to the public’s awareness! 👏 🙂
OneManWolfPack
July 23, 2021 at 7:44 pm
I was highly skeptical at the start with an old person complaining about streaming but we was extremely fair and reasonable and I hope my like and comment helps spread his message ever so slightly.
Kevin Wells
July 24, 2021 at 6:36 am
He wasn’t just any old person. But when we get old, I guess that is what we become. Also, not jabbing at you, yours is a valid point and I like it. But ‘old person’ – it’s relative and it’s not. Besides, he was part of ABBA, so if you get a chance listen to that band… and witness him when he was young. We all start out like you (assuming you are young)… but we all end up like him, and of course older.
Master Phoenix
July 23, 2021 at 8:48 pm
I agree with him 110%, music helps so many people. I will do my best from this moment on to learn who wrote the music and songs I like to hear. An pay it forward to those people.
Snoop
July 23, 2021 at 9:18 pm
Finally something good by Ted
Thomas De Quincey
July 23, 2021 at 10:46 pm
The music industry needs to die. It needs to die and its rotting corpse be fed to piranhas who will devour it completely. Only that way can “streaming” be eliminated. Thankfully “streaming” is itself doing the job of killing the music industry. Ironic.
DAW 75
July 23, 2021 at 10:57 pm
Björn looks much younger than 76!
sam davies
July 26, 2021 at 3:24 pm
money money money
Melissa0774
July 23, 2021 at 11:03 pm
It’s not just the streaming payment system that’s the problem, it’s also the promotion system. How do you get new music in front of people who wouldn’t have thought to go seek it out on their own? And how do new artist who are starting to gain a little bit of traction, get more exposure so they can take their career to the next level? MTV doesn’t really play videos or have shows like TRL anymore. Traditional broadcast radio has been on the way out for the past 20 years. Sure, there’s YouTube and all the stuff that people do on social media. But when you’re looking for music online, you only seek out stuff you already know or similar new stuff that you think you’ll like. So it becomes a kind of echo chamber. There’s no one putting a compilation of new stuff in front of you and saying “here try some of this. Maybe you’ll like it.” And you end up being exposed to new artist or different genres of music that you wouldn’t otherwise have thought to listen to before. The same thing is happening with TV shows and news media too and I think it’s going to have a detrimental effect on American culture. There’s no one thing that everyone pays attention to anymore and it’s dividing people.
DAW 75
July 25, 2021 at 5:15 am
It has never been easier to get recognized as it is now, as creators do not need a big organization or money to be heard. You can make a name with no money. Enough people watching will make them money in the end. I think its great!
Melissa0774
July 25, 2021 at 8:01 pm
@DAW 75 Yeah, it’s kind of double edged sword, though. Sure, it’s way easier to be seen and get recognized now, but there’s less money in it now and the audience is more split up because there are so many more people competing for attention.
Brendan O' Neil
July 26, 2021 at 7:06 pm
@DAW 75 Disagree, any man and his dog can have channel and record thier own ‘original’ tunes, but out of 80 000 songs daily released, I wonder how many actually get listened to? Most musician commities now just swamped with artists begging for likes and subs, rarely listening or commenting on anything else. I actually recorded with a Platinum artist around 2008, his view being it was (then) tenfold harder to get recognised, even worse now.
DAW 75
July 23, 2021 at 11:07 pm
I rarely use spotify, the current fee is low enough for me to keep it running. Any higher I would cancel it. I bet many spotify subscribers would agree. Higher price will make piracy a thing again. It’s a delicate balance.
Back in the days the music industry made more money than they deserved, so maybe it is closer to a equlibrium now? (Im not having all the facts, but IMHO music was too expensive 20 years ago).
Odin OfficialEmcee
July 25, 2021 at 3:08 am
Was it? Your average CD in 2001 sold for about as much as a new movie and the budgets were comporable to a small film. Labels for big name artists would spend $5 – $10 million getting the project written, produced, recorded, mixed, mastered, marketed and promoted, produce hardcopies, distribute them, go on a national tour, create merchandise, write produce film and distribute music videos, secure interviews and rotation on radio and TV, etc.. And smaller or new artists and flops were still spending about $1 – $2 million that the winners had to cover.
Sure it was a big industry, but I think it was largely fair; especially when compared to how it operates today
DAW 75
July 25, 2021 at 5:06 am
@Odin OfficialEmcee yeah, music was crazy expensive back then, way out of proportions, hence piracy got to be a thing. As music still is produced it gotta be good business. Spotify and other streaming services keep piracy under control now.
Christopher Wilson
July 24, 2021 at 1:52 am
TED must have shipped those big white S letters via UPS.
Wooster
July 24, 2021 at 5:27 am
Most good music is from the 70s-80s, when competition wasn’t as fierce.
maria
July 27, 2021 at 9:04 am
there’s still music as good as in the 70’s-80’s but the artists are underrated
Sara Dean
July 24, 2021 at 5:44 am
Love ABBA so much!
Tommy Parker
July 24, 2021 at 5:59 am
The distribution of money between the companies and their creators might need to change, but I don’t agree that prices for the everyday consumer should be higher. Especially given the ever increasingly worse economic state that we’re currently in
Ming Fei
July 24, 2021 at 6:14 am
Damn, think about the whole kpop community leaving songs on loop for entire days just to get their faves on top 😬
Cynthia Rutledge
July 24, 2021 at 12:19 pm
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Olga S. Pérez
July 24, 2021 at 12:49 pm
⚡️🙏⚡️
Dar Dar
July 25, 2021 at 6:18 am
FINALLY!! Someone who has experienced and observed the music industry addressed such problems. Everybody will benefit if only we can solve these problems. I hope this video gets more views and will eventually help to change the industry.
Daniel Angelina
July 25, 2021 at 9:35 am
Wow!! Finally meet the Maskoffweb, on YouTube people have been talking about since he hack 12,000 thousand into my bank account with just a token amount am very surprised
iliketowatchducks
July 25, 2021 at 6:28 pm
Very interesting! And also very nice to hear the opinions and views of someone with as much real life experiences in the subject at hand
Valeria Bogdasheva
July 25, 2021 at 8:38 pm
the legend!
Aramati Paz
July 26, 2021 at 2:05 am
Increase the fee won’t help the artist if the fee money is not going to the artist.
Drmax brown
July 26, 2021 at 7:20 am
*Thanks for the feedback~~~if you have any ideas you want me to talk about feel free to chat me immediately for more enlightenment ~~ 🇼 :🇭 :@🇹 :🇸 :🇦 :🇵 :🇵 •••🇲 🇪 • 💬+1 (413) 354-9698.-_*
Tom Crotty
July 26, 2021 at 8:01 am
We need a distribution model that doesn’t feel like a distribution model. Busking is such a good example of the kind of fluid dynamic between artist and listener. As a listener, wander through and enjoy a world of music, putting money towards those who pique your interest, when you can afford to. As an artist, do your thing, put on a show, and organically build a fanbase while being paid. Streaming platforms have totally dissolved the social nature of this exchange.
Ben King
July 26, 2021 at 4:07 pm
I’m actually pretty shocked! I assumed Björn’s suggestion was already the case! That my $9.99 would be divided across the songs that I listen too…what a mess!
JC B
July 26, 2021 at 5:26 pm
Thank you for the music, Björn, I’ve myself noticed how credit in the creative industries is distributed in unfair ways. Hope the fans will stand for the creators, the movie industry owes as well to the artists making most of the movies these days.
David Henderson
July 26, 2021 at 6:52 pm
So glad I grew up with ABBA and bought the records as they were released, downloads are heard not listened to, il keep to vinyl
Nicola Knight
July 26, 2021 at 10:12 pm
Björn is a legend 🥰
Anne Gwinner
July 27, 2021 at 12:35 am
💌
is very believable! thx from germany .
Oniric
July 27, 2021 at 9:41 am
Music streaming platforms like Spotify are indeed already upping their fee…but who cares talking about the “money”. I mean I’m a song-writer myself and I’ve decided it’s ok not to get any money, even if I’m streaming on multiple platforms. I do it for the fun.
Let’s talk about the music really. Average people are happy with what’s popular. It’s always been that way. And pop music is all about repetition, familiarity, and so on.
So it just makes sense that what we will get is more and more of the same and we will get used to more of the same, ’till we won’t want anything different than what’s average.
Ever seen the movie Idiocracy?
But if the average person goes a little further than what they’re being told to listen to, they’ll find a hidden world of interesting artists out there.
The change always comes from the people ..and in this case people’s taste.
sam davies
July 27, 2021 at 2:16 pm
ah! the good old days! In capitalism one can only be sure of change for better or worse for any party! suck it up.Rachmaninoff was no billionaire!
Christopher Sundquist
July 27, 2021 at 2:40 pm
This is absurd. You write a song that resonates with people or it doesn’t. The only thing a copyright does is prevent others from taking credit fom the creator’s creation on paper. That doesn’t stop others from making money of of it. Copyright makes it easier to basterdize a creation by those with the money and “authority” by taking control away from the creator. The song writer and the singer is a prime example. This is also proven by the nonsense that is constantly discussed on “Ted Talk”. The less the creator is seen and heard, the more the creation is taken away and twisted to suit the purposes of others that wish to utilize what isn’t theirs to gain money, “authority” and influence. Back to the subject at hand. The singer will always get the credit and clout. Then they often use that clout to spread their own views instead of the creator’s views, which is whear the views originated in the first place. The “protection” of a copyright is an illusion.
Another Name
July 28, 2021 at 8:01 am
The old model was not that fair either; Why should an album with simple pop music cost the same as one of the philharmonics?
I would never pay more than maybe 4-5$ for an Elton John album, while I would gladly pay +25$ for Al Di Meola, or some well made J.S. Bach performance.
Martha Patricia Puente de la Vega
July 28, 2021 at 7:41 pm
Wrong data?? How can they do that!!!