Bee Gee weighs into music royalty standard
Millionaire musicians barely staying alive
POPULAR BEAT COMBO warbler Robin Gibb, claims that standardising music royalties across Europe would be a 'tragedy' for musicians and the songs they write.
EC mandarins are close to finishing an antitrust investigation into how royalties are collected. They want to draw up rules that might help the likes of Itunes to flog its wares from one store across Europe, rather than different stores with different products.
But Gibb, famous for yowling his way in falsetto through Saturday Night Fever, warned that drastic changes to Europe's current online music market could reduce the royalties that musicians get.
If major online services can negotiate lower, region-wide fees, artists could get less for their songs despite seeing them distributed more widely.
Gibb said that it was a human right that someone who pens a piece of work should have control of it.
More than 220 musos including Charles Aznavour, Sade, David Gilmour, Julio Iglesias, Maurice Jarre, Mark Knopfler and Michel Legrand have appealed to the EU saying pan-European music licensing will kill creativity. µ
L'Inq
SiliconValley.com
Comments
ruined my day.
so musicians and artists are now only able to be creative when the royalties are right ?I though (perhaps rather naively ) that artists where not in it for the money and that money was just some kind of byproduct.
Ok , so clearly it is about the money and the problem is?
whats Mr Gibbs on about? Hes alright jack , and so are most of his work mates.So Is he fighting some kind of moral case here, in the name of all the lost artists that live under bridges everywhere?if so , why???????
Maybe they really should just dump the idea of regulating royalties and let everyone nock out the best (or worst) deal they can.This will make it near impossible to unify and optimize global online sales and in he end mean less sales and less money for artists and not more.you dont have to be an artist to see that.
Really
"Gibb said that it was a human right that someone who pens a piece of work should have control of it."Let's leave aside for the moment the idea that copyright is a human right. Let's talk about the control part. Why is it that all music media says on it Copyright of Sony, RCA, Sun Records, etc. If the artist had control it should say Copyright of George Michael, Boy George or Johnny Cash. I don't know about this Gibb fella but just maybe his music label tells him what to say as part of his contract.
BEEGEES Auction Used Syringes.
It Isn't Clear if syringes have BeeGees Dope Residue still In Them, Yet BAND kept Every used syringe For Last 30 years & Hopes To Sell Them To Groupies.Cleaver Way To Support ONES Habit.
drashek
boo-hoo
you want control of your music? don't sell it to a major label... simple. you sold your music away to someone else. why don't you dry your tears with the money they paid you?Pan European Licensing Will Kill Creativity
Hmmm, so pan-European licensing will kill creativity? I thought that was dead already...Please!
If this means that the BeeGees never make a new song, I'm all for it. Of course, I'm saying this to save the children.Human Right?
This place being full of technical sorts knows all about the rules governing programming for hire. If we write software for an employer -- or sell the rights to it -- then it really doesn't matter any more that we wrote it, it becomes someone else's property. The programmer doesn't get any 'rights' to it in perpetuity, especially those "human rights" (whatever they are).Software doesn't have the showbiz aspect to it that music has but its easily as creative. Very few of us get to write one program and expect to live off it for the rest of our lives -- once its written its off to the next job (performance).
no sympathy
i dont know how these musicians manage on their pittance of £millions whilst living in obscene luxury.its no wonder they are campaigning for every last penny they can...
maybe they should visit a third world country and experience real poverty. i have no sympathy for the greedy scumbags. greed, greed, GREED!
do you understand irony?
fact: before they were famous, the beegees used to be called "the tossers"[SM writes: Actually it was Les Tossers]