hi everyone
so apparently IMRO (the Irish Music Rights Organization) are now going to start charging Irish music blogs licensing fees for posting mp3’s of bands they collect on behalf of. I just found out about this when i read the paper today. IMRO collect on my behalf, and as much as i can tell they are good people who do a good job. I was incredibly surprised to see that this is happening. This effects the entire music industry in Ireland for sure, but less so the bigger established acts and more the up and coming bands, the ones that need some help getting themselves out into the world.
The first thing i did when i had finished my record and was trying to figure out a way of people hearing it was to mail my favourite blogs and say ‘hi, i have this album, maybe you’ll like it, if you do then i’d be really grateful if you’d post some songs off it on your site’. I find 90% of the new music i love through music blogs, i know what an important job they do. Most of them do it for no money, purely for their desire for good music to be heard. Without the help of these folks then me getting my album up and out into the world would have been a monstrously tougher task.
I’ve read some really well thought out and proper arguments against this new license on a couple of blogs today, mainly nialler9.com, Jim Carrolls blog, and thetorturegarden.blogspot.com.
Shane at the torture garden makes real sense when he talks about IMRO essentially deciding that they know better than the artists they represent. I make my music, it’s owned by me, i’m signed to EMI publishing, as far as i was concerned these were the only 2 opinions that currently mattered in where and when my music is played, and by whom. I know the argument would be made that every time a song of mine is played on radio then IMRO collect money on my behalf, so then why should they not collect whenever a song of mine is played anywhere else. But then radio stations are commercial money making endeavours, playing music is part of how they gain revenue, so obviously they should pay for the right. I’m not saying there aren’t music blogs out there that are commercial ventures, and if they are actively making money off of the music they host then some sort of compensation should exist. IMRO has said that they will stagger the license fee based on whether your site makes more or less than 7,000euros a year. The problem with this as i understand it(and my understanding is pretty darn limited) is that anyone under that marker still pays the same flat fee. So a blog that makes 4,000 grand a year pays the same as a blog that makes nothing. This makes no sense whatsoever to me, if a blog is your livelihood it’s one thing, but if it’s an unpaid hobby, and you have bands, press and pr people mailing you on a daily basis ASKING you to post music, then it’s an utter nonsense.
I apologize if this is descending into simple ranting, but this is a subject that resonates strongly with me, as i imagine it will with many artists out there. As i said earlier, bloggers were incredibly helpful to me when i was trying to get started, they posted my songs, they wrote about me. It’s a symbiotic relationship, one thing can’t live without the other. To suddenly lose so many of these people because they can’t afford to pay, well thats a terribly sad thing indeed. I’m going to try and find out more about this in the mornig, as i may be wildly off in almost all of what i’ve just written.
In the meantime I’ll finish with a really great quote i pulled off a blog called ‘asleep on the compost heap’, one of the Irish blogs that was first notified that it would have to pay a fee. I think it sums the ridiculousness of the whole situation up rather nicely.
Peace out
James
“hey I’m no Lawyer, but surely Irish music blogs, tending as they do to host single MP3s and promote gigs rather than encouraging the wholesale downloading of albums, should be nurtured, not slapped with some shite about a license fee that is going to cause half of them to quit in confusion and frustration?”
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