From: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org (navy-soup-digest) To: navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Subject: navy-soup-digest V5 #13 Reply-To: navy-soup@smoe.org Sender: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk navy-soup-digest Thursday, January 17 2002 Volume 05 : Number 013 In This Digest: ----------------- Re: Some other thoughts on the Sarah's label issue [Paul Schreiber ] Sarah's latest trip to the US [] Re: Some other thoughts on the Sarah's label issue [Greg Teltschik ] Slean on The Edge! ["Kelly Goodlad" ] Re: Slean on The Edge! [Songbird22@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 23:03:48 -0800 From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Re: Some other thoughts on the Sarah's label issue Greg wrote: >And they will certainly use the terms of the >contract to their advantage. That's easy to do when you pretty much unilaterally set the terms of the contract. I mean major label record deals are pretty close to contracts of adhesion. >I'm all for it as it does seem that there is some >imbalance in the current situation. Why, how diplomatic of you. Are we looking for an A&R job sometime soon? There's a hell of a lot of imbalance. Record companies are in the business of collecting copyrights to works and reselling them. That's about it. There's a systematic effort to strip artists of their rights: performance rights, reproduction rights, moral rights, et cetera. It's largely succeeded due to successful lobbying. The RIAA's motto should be: "Support the American economy: buy a congressman." The CRIA, while not as deep-pocketed, nor as outspoken (far more people know who Hilary Rosen is than Brian Robertson), is just as morally bankrupt. Paul shad 96c / uw cs 2001 / mac activist / fumbler / eda / headliner / navy-souper fan of / sophie b. / steve poltz / habs / bills / 49ers / "I don't need you to buy me dinner. I just need you to love me." -- Sarah Slean ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 08:56:17 -0500 From: "James McGarry" Subject: Re: Slean on Guitar - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gabriell Rickard" Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 11:14 PM > i never knew she played guitar... Its a somewhat recent skill aquisition. Though I've seen less talented pianists pick up the guitar pretty darn quick (it _is_ a stringed instrument too), so I'm thrilled, but not surprised. :-) James. "Ooooo Sarah played guitaaar." - apologies to The Man and Vince Taylor. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 12:08:06 -0500 From: Subject: Sarah's latest trip to the US Hi, This is directed at Heather in particular, though if anyone else on the list has any information it'd be welcome. Sarah is reportedly playing at The Kendall Cafe in Cambridge next week. The club's website (thekendall.com) has her listed as being there on Wednesday, January 23rd, while a new listing on pollstar.com has her playing there on the 24th. Anyone know which is the correct date? Also, is she planning on also playing at the other venues she missed out on when she wasn't able to make it over the border back in December, meaning CB's Gallery in NYC and wherever it was she was playing in PA? There's nothing new listed at sarahslean.com, but the Kendall Cafe show isn't listed there either. Thanks... Michael ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 17:58:58 +0000 From: Greg Teltschik Subject: Re: Some other thoughts on the Sarah's label issue At 23:03 1/15/2002 -0800, Paul wrote: >Greg wrote: > > >And they will certainly use the terms of the > >contract to their advantage. > >That's easy to do when you pretty much unilaterally set the terms of the >contract. I mean major label record deals are pretty close to contracts >of adhesion. I'll be honest. I had to look that one up. I have to disagree with you on this one. Contracts of adhesion are a sort of take-or-leave-it sort of contract. Like when you buy software. If I were selling my life away, I'd sure as hell read the damn thing and request clarification or changes as appropriate. In fact, I'd hire a lawyer to look it over. I think the problem is two fold: one, the record company is certainly going to make the terms of the agreement in their favor as well as to cover their butt. Case in point, consider contract wording that says the artist must sign a 3 record deal (if you hit it big, we've got you exclusive), but also "we reserve the right to terminate this contract at any time with no reason and no financial remuneration due" (if you suck, we just drop you). Two, I would tend to think that most artists don't bother to fully understand all of the terms of the contract prior to signing. It's a major label! I'm going to be a big star! Oh, right, if it get's cancelled, I just go on my merry way. WRONG! I say this not because I think artists are morons. We enter into contracts all the time. Most people just sign them and never read all the "fine print" until it's way too late. For example, here in Texas we have some unique property laws. Basically, if you declare bankruptcy or otherwise owe someone money, they have no ability whatsoever to take away your primary residence. It's considered yours, and there are lots of legal protections there to make sure you keep it. Yes, I'm sure there is a way to get at it, but it's hard. It even takes six months to evict renters who don't pay their monthly rent! Anyway, there is, however, a very unique loophole. Many neighborhoods have a homeowner's association that is responsible for the upkeep of the public spaces as well as enforcing all of the homeowner's regulations that have been agreed upon. When you purchase your house, there is a clause in the contract that states that you agree to terms of the homeowner's association. Now here's the kicker. Homeowners associations get their money from dues that every home owner pays annually. They also have the ability to levy fines for infractions of the rules. If you fail to pay your dues or the fines, they have the ability to file a lien against your house. If after a certain period of time, you have not resolved the issue, they have the ability to take ownership of your home and dispose of it to pay the fines. Yes, for the measly sum of $400 they can take over your $400,000 home. There is actually a court case currently being held because a homeowner's association sold someone's home for around $500 or something. I really don't know what the argument is, but it will be interesting to find out. I'm not sure if this is prevalent everywhere, but it goes to show you that you need to read the contract and understand the terms. Getting back to the contracts of adhesion issue, I don't think the majors are the only ones in town. There are several small indie labels, and even smaller divisions of the majors that are run separately. There are options available. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like there are alternatives if you don't like the terms of the major label's contract. > >I'm all for it as it does seem that there is some > >imbalance in the current situation. > >Why, how diplomatic of you. Are we looking for an A&R job sometime soon? > >There's a hell of a lot of imbalance. Record companies are in the >business of collecting copyrights to works and reselling them. That's >about it. That's true. The same could be argued for just about every large corporation, just substitute intellectual property in place of copyrights. When you agree to employment with an organization, they agree to pay you, and you agree that anything you come up with while working for them is owned by them. The same applies to contractors (which are closer to recording artists, in my opinion). Write some software code, and they own it. Write a magazine article, and they own it. Come up with a revolutionary way to solve the world's pollution problem, and they patent it. The music industry is pretty much the same, but I would argue that maybe the stakes are a little higher. As an employee or contractor of an organization, you still own your experience and knowledge, which you can take with you somewhere else and reuse. In music, when you write and record a song, the label owns the rights to distribution. As has been pointed out earlier, they can then decide whether it ever gets published or distributed at all! You can't go somewhere else and rerecord it on another album without their permission. It is not transferrable the way experience or knowledge would be. And since an artist directly makes money from their music, it immediately impacts their financial situation. >There's a systematic effort to strip artists of their rights: performance >rights, reproduction rights, moral rights, et cetera. > >It's largely succeeded due to successful lobbying. The RIAA's motto >should be: "Support the American economy: buy a congressman." It's a lobbying group, just like any other. I'd argue that the AARP, MADD, the NRA, and a whole bunch of others do the same thing. They all are looking to put the rights of their membership and their beliefs ahead of the rest of the public. Many claim to speak for the public at large, but they all have a second agenda, no matter how noble or right their efforts seem. Personally, I'm all for the artists taking back some of the rights the RIAA and the major labels have assumed for themselves. I'd love to see someone stick it to them for a change. I'm tired of all the crap they foist on the public (don't even get me started about SCMS and some of the other junk - now we're gonna get CDs that won't play in some players). But I think when you're on the other side of the fence, that is, when you run a fairly large record label, you see things just a little bit differently. Not saying I agree, but I concede that there is another perspective. Greg Teltschik gteltschik@mindspring.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 10:33:27 -0800 From: Paul Schreiber Subject: Re: Slean on Guitar > later..... > ************************************************************************ > * ok * > * bye bye * > * steve-o-reeno * > * ~spiderman~ * [snip] How about keeping your insane, 64-line .sig to a dull roar? Try reading this -- it's the Netiquette RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt Paul shad 96c / uw cs 2001 / mac activist / fumbler / eda / headliner / navy-souper fan of / sophie b. / steve poltz / habs / bills / 49ers / "Nobody gets into heaven without a glowstick" -- Homer Simpson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 20:04:58 -0500 From: "Kelly Goodlad" Subject: Slean on The Edge! Hey guys, I'm so excited--they just played Sarah on CFNY (or as it's now called, The Edge). The first single is "Weight", so I got to hear the new version. I like it! It's definitely different--maybe even rockier than how she does it live now, but I think it has a good chance of going into regular rotation (though who knows how regular...). Anyway, call the station to request! She's going to be on Live In Toronto on Monday for a chat, and no doubt they'll play a couple songs from the album, and maybe she'll perform live too (who knows? Heather?) It's really cool to hear an announcer introduce a 'new' artist you've been following for years. :) Oh and I also heard Alanis's new single this morning when I was waking up and it's GREAT! I'm not a massive fan of hers--I like her enough, but I really liked this new song. I didn't catch the title... Kelly _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 21:05:46 EST From: Songbird22@aol.com Subject: Re: Slean on The Edge! Kelly writes: > Oh and I also heard Alanis's new single this morning when I was waking up > and it's GREAT! I'm not a massive fan of hers--I like her enough, but I > really liked this new song. I didn't catch the title... It's called "Hands Clean" and I love it. It and a few other tracks have been circulating around the net for awhile... definitely relate to HC, though, kind of pathetic, actually. Heh. I am really looking forward to hearing the new version of "Weight." That song has always been a favorite of mine. Jess www.jessicaweiser.com | www.aftersilence.net debut lp "after silence" out 4/2002!!! ------------------------------ End of navy-soup-digest V5 #13 ******************************