Jane Sibbery download changes
p2p news / p2pnet: Jane Sibbery has made some download changes on her Sheeba records site, notes Digital-copyright.ca’s Russell McOrmond.
"It should remind musicians why it is so important to retain copyright of your work, and be very careful about the continuous attempts by intermediaries to take control of your music away from you," says McOrmond, going on:
"Jane has been using the very successful self-determined pricing where her fans pick the monitory value of the music when they pay. (Note that all but 8% pay at or above the suggested price, statistics that show that the major labels are wrong about trusting music fans to pay for music!)"
Here’s Sibbery’s missive:
NOTICE
As of July 5th, 2006, I will be removing all the songs from ‘When I Was A Boy’ and ‘Maria’ from my website. As this enforcement is coming from the publishing end, these songs cannot be available on any other recordings either, therefore the removal will extend to:
Calling All Angels (millenium version)
Caravan (live verson on ‘child’)
An Angel Stepped Down (live version on ‘child’)
As you know, these two recordings have only been available when you CHOOSE THE CANADA OPTION as our goal was to set up the website in accordance to our contractual obligations.
—-
I am puzzling over this greatly, trying to find a win-win for both the publisher and myself. They are entirely within their rights. I have been very careful, since taking over my business dealings, to only enter into liasons that were win-win reflecting the consciousness of the new millenium, to the best of my ability. How did ‘forever’ ever get into these old contracts? Gasp of the old empire.
onwards and upwards.
more later.
—
best wishes,
Jane Siberry
HOME
June 12th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
“It should remind musicians why it is so important to retain copyright of your work, and be very careful about the continuous attempts by intermediaries to take control of your music away from you,”
Of course the intermediares are the music publishers, who usually publish nothing and are in the business only for collecting a cut of the royalties earned from the songwriter’s effort and promotion.
Why do songwriters fall for the storyline of publishers?
They have not united, except in the publisher controlled collectives who are there to finish the job for the publishers.
Wake up songwriters.
June 12th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Back in the old days a songwriter really had no choice but to sign on with a publisher to get their music out. Like with recorded music, performers felt the need to be part of a label in order to get their music out.
Now that the world has changed, and songwriters and performers can reach audiences and make money without needing either publishers or a record label (or under their own personal label). We need to be encouraging this modernization, and should be careful not to be seen as targeting these artists. We really are on their site (as fellow creators, as audiences), and need to be as helpful as we can.
I for one congratulate Jane for her breaking away from the intermediaries for her new music, even if her old works are still tied up by the way things were done in the past.
Note: For songwriters the collectives are mandated by law. Public performances (which includes transmission by radio) of music do not require permission from the songwriter, just payment of a levy. For Canada the rate of this levy is set by the Copyright Board of Canada.
P.S. While I was a fan of Jane’s music in the 1980’s, I re-connected more recently having met her in person at http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/progs/pda-cpb/forum/index_e.cfm