The week of our birthday bash Punk Rock Mayhem Show is here! Friday is going to be almost like a mini festival! For a nominal €5 you will be getting nearly four hours of live music. There will also be drink promotions: pints and shots from €3 and pitchers from €10. After the show we'll have the D.J play out the night with some punk rock until 2am! The doors will open at 8pm and the show will kick off 9pm sharp, so we really hope to see you all in there:-)
Now to the meat and veg part of this blog. During the week an email popped up in my mailbox from IMRO about some suggested changes to the Copyright and Related rights act 2000. I do believe the revision is urgently needed and long over due. Lets look at some of the points to be reviewed, but before this let me just say I have been a member of IMRO for roughly about 13 years so far and before this I was a member of TEOSTO, the Finish equivalent organisation. One point has been brought out in the past few years, is the “Fair use”. This is something that is already in practice in USA and other countries. IMRO thinks that "due to the current act's clear unambigious Language has meant that there are few, if any, cases in the area of fair dealing Ireland." First of all, I think this is an area where IMRO is about ten years in the past. Music business has evolved and it is very important for the artist that they can have the option to give permission to post, or play their music on blogs, independent internet radio, or on some similar circumstances. I thought that IMRO was collecting royalties on my behalf, not deciding and restricting the control I have over material that I own the copyright to... Correct me if I am wrong here, but I think they are working against the music on this particular matter. Also with my understanding if the government is looking to amend the law, surely the language in question can be looked at as well. The Email explained the some of the changes that IMRO have suggested. They did not ask members opinion on the matter, or encourage any feedback. I did Email them to ask for some sort of an opportunity for the members to have their say on the matter, still waiting to hear back. There is no point collecting royalties if it is risking the live music, or promotion of new music. I have been at several IMROs annual meetings and every year people rise the question about radio play of Irish bands etc. IMRO can't force radio stations to play your music, nor is it really their job. But in my mind they should not stop bloggers posting my tracks, if I give them my permission. This was not the only point I am worried about.
Publication requirements of licencing bodies under the act. by the current law IMRO needs to publish the tariffs they charge pubs, clubs, restaurants, shops etc. for playing either background music or live music. These tariffs are posted on their website. IMRO is requesting this publication requirement to be abolished as soon as possible. In their own words: “In IMRO’s experience, publishing tariffs – especially individually negotiated license terms – is causing difficulties in concluding licensing arrangements with companies.“ They also point out that EU law does not require the publication of these fees and they are not aware of any other collection society in Europe required by law to disclose commercially negotiated licencing terms. As a matter of interest I did check out the Finish collection society TEOSTO's website, and they have very detailed tariffs posted on their website, now whether this is by law or not, that I do not know. Just a quick question: am I the only one who smells smoke here? I mean, does it not sound like some one has something to hide? IMRO, or any other similar collection agency abroad for that matter do important work and contribute to the survival of the musician, but some of their policies needs to be looked at.
Also according to their tariffs on their website IMRO charge Bars (let's face it, most of us play in bars) between €9.25 and €58.62 depending on the annual turnover of the venue. I know a venue in the south side of Dublin who had to limit the amount of live music due to these charges. And how much of these charges actually end up in the hands of the bands? Based on numerous phone calls we have made to them in the past ten years, the “pool” has been getting smaller every year... I can tell you that the venue in question is paying out to IMRO nearly 3 times more than what the artist is getting per gig. I do understand that if a venue has a covers band that just plays other peoples music all night, of course the song writers deserve to get payed, but we all know how hard it is to get gigs for bands playing original material. That's the messed up part, these fees hit hardest the up and coming original artist and most of us don't even know this. I think on this particular case the law would need some kind of claw, where band who only plays material that they own the copyright to, should be able to sign a waver for individual concerts, if they wish to do so. I do understand this could lead to a serious abuse, but with bit of thought and input from all sides, including the musicians, there could be law that would favor live original music, instead scaring the bars from booking live bands.
We can all sit here and say as an artist we deserve to get payed. And rightly so, but at what cost? The business is evolving and needs to do so, but we need to open our eyes to the fact that if we make the copyright laws overly strict, this will only scare away people. Music is powerful thing, and especially live music. There are publicans out there who know this and we should encourage them to book more bands, not scare them away. Same goes with promoters, rental venues etc. If I would resign IMRO today and play a concert tomorrow, they would still charge the venue a fee... So I am not telling you to work against them, but work with them.
OK, I could go on here much longer, but it is a heavy subject and this is already much more stirring I was planning to do... Let me know your thoughts on all of the above, I'm sure some of you have completely different view an it all:-) So we'll come back for more next week and hope to see you all on Friday!
J.P.
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