[Dixielandjazz] Copyright

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

Hi Rocky:

You got it correct, and just the sheer ridiculousness of trying to think of 
policing the millions of people making copies of their recordings for their own 
personal use is ludicrous at best.

The blank tape and now CD ROM industry indeed has royalties built into the 
wholesale price of all units sold, not that the artists will ever get any of the 
money except to the Michael Jackson's and of that caliber who have enough 
money and clout that the Industry cannot avoid them getting a piece of the 
action.

But us little guys down the ladder can continue to just whistle Dixie for any 
money we might have coming, because there is no way they will ever do the 
accounting to keep track of the revenue and or distribution.

It is basically just a licensee to steal and rip off the poor starving 
musicians and songwriters, while threatening all the venues that use music, into 
paying them fees to finance their own salaries and enormous operating budgets.

I have always said if it costs all that much money for you to go collect my 
royalties, just forget about it I don't need you to collect them, I can't 
afford you.  I have even been present when they actually did collect the money, and 
asked them to give it to me, ha ha ha ha, what a  bad joke.  They just spend 
ten minutes with a prepared speech about how they have to take it back to 
their offices and process it through the accounting department, etc., blah blah 
blah.

I now sell all my own products direct to the consumer and at 1/2 what the 
Major Labels charge, manufacture it for the same price as they do within cents, 
about $1.00 each and sell them for $10.00 to $12.00 and make plenty of profit 
to pay myself and any artists on the recordings with me a royalty.  With the 
advent of the Internet and being able to market to millions of consumers direct 
we finally really do not need a major record label if we are willing to work 
at our business.

We also make enough profit to be able to give away as many promotional copies 
as we need to potential employers and reviewers to promote ourselves.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins