Brief chat with the music lawyer...

[joelpatterson]

I was at a music showcase/conference/workshop last weekend, and found myself sitting next to a music laywer from Philly.

The "advice" they gave during the panel presentation was all about the need to do it all yourself-- publishing, registering, marketing, not to mention recording your own first rate state-of-the-art product. Standard fare, but perhaps some of the attendees weren't familiar or hadn't had it laid out so succinctly.

I started to talk to her, and unfortunately the conversation was cut short, but I was going on about how the opportunities this "new world" provided me-- how the exposure I could get via the internet has revolutionized life for guys like me.

And it all centers around how every iota of "piracy combatment" is based solely on file fingerprinting-- as it should be, maybe. However... that leaves a crack in the door open for me to do the following:

Pretty much every chorus/orchestra concert I record has strict guidelines-- "distribution" and/or "broadcast" is verbotten without due consideration to the players, arrangers, Mozart's heirs, etc... still, when I convert a song or two to mp3's and upload it to a filesharing site, as a display of my humble talents, no one will ever LISTEN to it to try to determine if it's illegal, which it surely, surely is... since these files are all unique to me, they'll never be flagged as "pirated," because they're not.

I was marvelling at how this loophole allows me fantastic publicity, because of course naturally everyone involved flocks to listen to these mp3's... in a previous era this kind of thing was just not possible. I would have to be talking about stamping records and getting them to some outlet, which never ever would have flown, but today, well, the world is such that it all works great.

Her face got more and more drawn... I don't know if she was seeing a future when her advice to clients would be "do your OWN lawyering" or what... maybe the realization that her expertise was tethered to a system that's gradually evaporating before all our eyes... anyway, kooky world, eh?

[JGriffin]

Mozart has heirs?

[joelpatterson]

Spiritual heirs anyway, people like Justin Timberlake, Moby....

[Jay Reynolds]

Mozart has heirs?

Moby....

Thus all the strings.

[Tragabigzanda]

I want to make sure I understand your situation before I comment: You're an engineer, you often record classical/orchestral performances, and you make it a practice to then mix and upload the tracks for those interested (performers, their friends and families) to listen and enjoy. Do I have this right? If so...

Yea, I think you aren't in any real danger, because there's not a lot of money to be had in your recordings (that's not meant to sound antagonistic). Assuming you were to produce recordings of high-quality, then copyright those masters, you couldn't do much with them: no publishing company is going to try and generate any revenue (via a sync placement, for example) on a recording so disconnected from any publishing/compositional rights (meaning the actual composers have not signed any sort of agreement with you, or if they have, it's most likely a work-for-hire scenario).

There might be a smidgen of revenue for the performers from Soundexchange, but we're talking fractions of a cent. I'm not sure if Soundexchange is handling their own watermarking, or if they're outsourcing it, but at any rate, they'd probably spend more money tracking your recording (if it got played on Youtube, for example) then they would ever collect (because the Youtube royalty is miniscule, and you're probably not racking up a ton of plays).

My point is this: the affordability of recording gear and the relative ease with which we can learn to use it has made for an obviously enormous amount of music out there. But for someone to sic the lawyers on you, you would first have to be taking significant money out of somebody's wallet. As more people become self-produced/self-engineered musicians, we're going to see a widening "musical middle class" (to borrow a term from a writer at TinyMixTapes). I *believe* that those who are really successful are going to learn to exploit the copyrights and publishing rights via placement in film, tv, and games...

Unless you're a solid engineer with a niche market, like classical music...In which case, don't overthink it, just keep tracking those symphonies and chamber groups and increase your rate as your skills and tools improve.

[joelpatterson]

Thanks Alex-- I intend to follow your sage advice to the letter!

And, indeed, your understanding of my situation is accurate, far as it goes-- feel free to comment.

[Gregg Juke]

>>>>... still, when I convert a song or two to mp3's and upload it to a filesharing site, as a display of my humble talents, no one will ever LISTEN to it to try to determine if it's illegal, which it surely, surely is...<<<<

ah-HAAAAAA!

SOOOOooooooo, you ADMIT you are posting illegal recordings!

NOW we shall see what the People's Committee on The State's Intellectual Property & Office of the Just Tribunal has to say about your subversive activities... We shall see.

MUHuHuhuhahahaHaHaHaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

Svetlana Bellatroyka Smirnokotrova
PCTSIP&OJT

[JGriffin]

Svetlana, you hot little bitch.

[TapeOpLarry]

I do like how all these panels these days are all "DIY" yet coming from people that make a living in music because we need their skills. Makes no sense....

Some of these general discussions get me so pissed off when they marginalize music recording simply because you can multitrack on a computer. So what? I made great recordings on 2 track cassette when all the mics were up, mixed well and the people played awesomely. It's always missing the point...

[joelpatterson]

Svetlana, you hot little bitch.

Zee big, bad American boy.. you vant to feel the sting of my whip, comrade?

[Bender83]

A widening middle class, you say? I like that. I sort of had this conversation with my family to explain why the music business isn't "dying" but evolving. There are good arguments for why the music business really is getting hurt by this new media, but the people getting hurt are the millionaires and corporations. I don't hate (most of) these people, but I also don't care about them until I'm one of them. The era of 20-50 guys at the top making millions off of records seems to be over. Now any guy with a decent computer, pro-tools, headphones and a sound booth can make music and potentially give it to millions of people. Most performers I listen to are surviving or living off self-published material. They make enough money to eat, sleep and survive. And they are fine with that.

[@?,*???&?]

And it all centers around how every iota of "piracy combatment" is based solely on file fingerprinting-- as it should be, maybe. However... that leaves a crack in the door open for me to do the following:

Pretty much every chorus/orchestra concert I record has strict guidelines-- "distribution" and/or "broadcast" is verbotten without due consideration to the players, arrangers, Mozart's heirs, etc... still, when I convert a song or two to mp3's and upload it to a filesharing site, as a display of my humble talents, no one will ever LISTEN to it to try to determine if it's illegal, which it surely, surely is... since these files are all unique to me, they'll never be flagged as "pirated," because they're not.

I was marvelling at how this loophole allows me fantastic publicity, because of course naturally everyone involved flocks to listen to these mp3's... in a previous era this kind of thing was just not possible. I would have to be talking about stamping records and getting them to some outlet, which never ever would have flown, but today, well, the world is such that it all works great.

Hmmm. Read this too:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-p ... 1223.story

[JGriffin]

Hmmm. Read this too:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-p ... 1223.story

Hm. 15 years ago a replicating plant blew my release date by five months because they were mired in piracy screening. If the RIAA wants to keep people buying CDs, putting huge roadblocks in the production pipeline might not be their best strategy.

[@?,*???&?]

Hmmm. Read this too:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-p ... 1223.story

Hm. 15 years ago a replicating plant blew my release date by five months because they were mired in piracy screening. If the RIAA wants to keep people buying CDs, putting huge roadblocks in the production pipeline might not be their best strategy.

Or if it were more transparent and quick to execute- like the board of health showing up unannounaced at a restaurant- like they do all the time to inspect, maybe records would come out much quicker through making sure the business is 'above-board'.

[@?,*???&?]

I do like how all these panels these days are all "DIY" yet coming from people that make a living in music because we need their skills. Makes no sense...

I've stopped going to conferences like that because I know as much or more than the folks on the panels. (no offense, but I've not made a TapeOp conference either). There is exceptionally little new information given and most people are just there promoting themselves anyhow, which gets back to your point.