[Fmpro] Urgent Message Regarding Your Rights

[Chris Alpiar]

so Mark, how do we offer support that is needed *immediately* for this
legislation as there is a screaming need for elbow grease, but at the same
time stand firm to ideals for composer's utopia?

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Christopher Kennedy Alpiar
Cinematic Composer 
1280 Lytle Lane 
Dayton, OH 45409 
310.339.9603 (Los Angeles) 
937-294-0900 (Dayton) 
chris at alpiar.com 
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> But while you're at it, ask Jamie Marotta to allow WRITERS 
> the privilege of collecting mechanical royalties directly by 
> ending the LOCKOUT of writers at the NMPA-operated "Harry Fox 
> Agency", the nation's primary mechanical royalties agency. 
> Something tells me the NMPA doesn't exactly want an "army of 
> creators" demanding the right to collect mechanical royalties 
> directly from an independent society (like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC).
> 
> Why should the US be the only major country with no major 
> mechanical society that writers can join and get their 
> royalties DIRECTLY from?
> 
> Let's not forget that to the publishers, writers are an 
> expense, and a primary instinct and responsibility of a 
> business is to minimize expenses.
> The CRB rate decision is a critical one for writers, but 
> please, let's not paint the naïve picture that the publishers 
> and the writers are all on the same team on all issues. For 
> some issues, that may be true, but until the publishers end 
> the lockout of writers at the Harry Fox Agency which forces 
> writers to receive mechanical royalties after they've been 
> "passed through"
> the publishers (and who knows how many undisclosed admin fees 
> deducted), I've got some serious issues with how the US 
> publishers have co-opted the entire mechanical royalty 
> distribution process in the US.
> 
> Also, I don't find the use of the word "songwriters" an 
> oversight, as the publishers are the same people that control 
> ASCAP (compare the NMPA board and the ASCAP publisher board) 
> and the belief that "songs are king" and instrumental music 
> is second class is just as prevalent in the NMPA's view as it 
> is in ASCAP's view.
> 
> Yes, fight for better royalties, but but if we're going to 
> get into bed with the same people who won't allow us to 
> collect our royalties directly and whose representatives 
> continue to support second-class payment rates for 
> instrumental music at the PROs, we had better be careful.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Mark Northam