[Fmpro] Belling the Cat - Commercials

[Mark Northam]

On 7/20/07 10:06 AM, "Pete" <musical411 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> If you want to argue that commercial music should be
> paid the same rate as program music, that's fine. But,
> that would probably reduce the royalty checks of all
> the instrumental Composers on this list.

Well, so would solving all the tracking problems for commercials so at least
they'd get paid, even at the current microscopic rates.

That's why arguments like this are silly. The idea of promoting ignorance
(such as not implementing tracking technology for CPA music) and maintaining
discrimination (the ASCAP weighting formulas)  to protect those who benefit
personally from that ignorance or discrimination is indefensible in my book.

Once again, I'm not arguing for equal pay for a minute of commercial music
compared to a minute of in-program music, because that's a performance based
difference that is color-blind to the genre (score or song) of the music.

I am, however, arguing for an end to the song subsidy system at ASCAP where
every song gets an automatic feature performance. A minute of song vs. a
minute of score within a television show watched by the same number of
people should be paid at the same rate.

Mark Northam