THE MUSIC COPYRIGHT ENFORCERS

Interesting article on the vital and mysterious performance rights organizations (P.R.Os) from the NY Times. It goes into detail on how these organizations collect royalties for their artists and writers. One of the more shocking parts of the article was when it stated that "during the years that during the years the recording industry lost nearly 60 percent of its income, BMI and its competitor ASCAP had steady increases in profits." "The trick, says BMI's CEO Bryant, is to understand the content world as an ecosystem. When a new player comes along, don’t kill it, make a deal with it. With each new medium, he says: “We made agreements that weren’t that heavily monetized, and not that heavily binding because we didn’t know if it’d be around for long or how it would evolve. They were place keepers, ways to get us working together. And they slowly solidified. It’s all a question of pricing. The system has to serve everyone’s purposes.” If your an artist its very important that you not only become familiar with BMI and ASCAP but also register with one of them if you haven't. Its very nice to see organizations in the music business that actually work hard to get their artists paid.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/magazine/08music-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=music