[Dixielandjazz] Re: The worm turns - at long last

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

You Betcha Mate:

It's been a long time coming, but it will not be without it's problems I can 
assure you.

Those big money thieves will not stop, roll over and play dead by any means, 
and there will also be other PARTNERS to dip into the profits.

Most Venues in the US anyway already charge 25 to 35% of the gross sales for 
any merchandise sold by the artists at live converts.

The mere fact that the article mentions Clear Channel as having anything to 
do with it, also sheds a Big Spotlight of suspicion upon the project, as they 
are on a Hell Bent Quest to Control All aspects of the Live Music Industry 
World Wide.  Having already bought a great majority of the Concert venues, 
Festivals, Promoters, and Radio Stations they can now do about anything they wish to 
do and black ball any act or manager or agent who does not conform to what 
they offer.  I see this move by them as an affront on the Record Labels as well, 
whew!  These boys play hardball and they are not taking any prisoners, or is 
it that they are taking ALL Prisoners?

We experienced this problem a few decades back when MCA tried to Monopolize 
the Entertainment Industry.

This does however open the door of opportunity  a bit wider for OKOM and 
Traditional Jazz music entrepeneurs, who move quickly, since  Clear Channel and 
almost nobody else, 
(Certainly not the Major Record Labels)  are even aware, or care that this 
marketplace even exists, and those who do, do not believe that it is sufficient 
enough to  be profitable since only OLD Folks who do not buy recordings or 
anything else except Geritol and Ex-lax, and cruise vacations and an occasional 
golf round go to the events and or buy an occasional CD.  Most of them don't 
even believe that these OLD Folks even own or know what a CD is, they see them 
all as still sitting around the hearth in a log cabin cranking the old Victrola 
and listening to worn out Al Jolson 78RPM records.

Boy are they wrong:  I am Old and I just bought an Al Jolson CD !!!!  for 
$1.99  marked down from $5.99,   but I am very angry because I also bought three 
Louis Armstrong CDs at the same time that had been marked up from $1.99 to 
$4.99,  I suppose somebody at Tower Records realized that some old farts like me 
might come in pay more money for Louis, than Al Jolson.  :))  They were right, 
I still won out, because by spending an hour and a half scrounging through 
the bargain and sale section I bought over $300.00 worth of good CDs for $78.00. 
   

I would have done much better, except for a couple of Old English gentlemen 
who got there before me had already grabbed up about fifty Traditional Jazz CDs 
and were headed for the cashier.  

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins