Karaoke Forums

Ok ASCAP says they pay the original artists 90% of what they collect. Is this minus operating expenses? I've read several articles, that state, when you download an mp3 for 99 cents, the artists gets 8 cents(I know it's nothing to do with ascap).
Now my main question. A man invents an original tool for fixing a certain part of a cars drive train. He gets a manufaturer to mass produce the tool, and they sell them for 10 bucks a piece. Now a mechanic buys this tool and uses it in his profession which is open to the public. He earns his living through this public orientated profession, using this tool and others like it, having paid for it once with no further royalties required by him, or the garage for which he works. He's got a hundred tools, and I've got a hundred karaoke cds which I've paid an average of 15 dollars a piece. Could be music cds, but they're still my tools. Creating that tool was a work of art, just like most music is a work of art(a few are not IMO... ). As a matter of fact, no music today is original, because the masters covered those notes every which way possible, and only the words make a song unique(I have read this many times). Doesn't matter to me anyway, my question is, if I bought my cd, just like he bought that tool, why shouldn't he or the garage he works for, have to pay royalties every year, on the tools they use? Any thoughts?

Let's see...

A mechanic buys a tool ..uses it over an over...doesn't pay royalties..

But the manufacturer in essence pays 'royalties'..by paying the 'artist', inventor for every tool they make and sell, right?

Just like with our 'tools', cd's... we use them over and over at ONE gig (if there are two gigs, you need two of those 'tools', cd's.

The manufacturer of that cd pays the artist for every cd they make?

Sounds like the same thing...

Except maybe for those Patents... when the patents runs out, then anyone can copy and make similar tools. Not so with music ...I don't think... ?

Damn confusing!!

Johnny Reverb said:

Yep. You bought the tool. ONCE... you don't pay royalties again or every time YOU use YOUR tool. You bought the hammer. YOU don't pay the inventor to make the tool, the toolmaker did and you bought it from him.

ASCAP doesn't care how often you use your paid-for-once tool. They're interested in the PLACE you use your tools because their logic is that it is the "art of the orginal artist" that is making the establishment money, therefore they are charging THEM a small "rental" on the tool that you purchased once. Their artist/client had a hand in creating the tool and they got their royalty from the Karaoke manufacturer to produce it once, which you by way of purchasing the disc, paid for and then another time from the establishment that benefits from the use of that tool. (on a yearly basis of course)

The .99 cent CD is a similar story, albeit backward one giant leap: There is no CD being made, but it is being distributed. It's a "distribution fee" of sorts

They simply want a little piece of everyone's pie. They're not picky about who's playing the pie, they just want everyone in the food chain to give them a nibble.

It might as well be a "tool use tax."

Actually music can and does end up in the public domain. Just takes a long time.

I also doubt that the mechanic can reproduce his tools for virtually nothing and save his original tools. If his original tool breaks he or she has to go out and buy a new one.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Not if you buy Snap On, or Mac like I have, but even Craftsman has a lifetime warranty.....ok, I,m getting off track...

Don't worry, somebody somewhere will see this and form an organization, and we'll all end up paying annual royalties for everything we use...... ...people find ways to make money off of someone elses work, as attitudes and laws change. It wasn't long ago, that the thought of bottling water, and selling it was ridiculas. What's next.......Air?......

Boatman so does SC and CB, provided, like Craftmaster, the item(s) are still available.

Nobodyhome, it already exists, in Canada it's AVLA for audio and I believe Great Britain has a similar organization. Now the thing is to make it worldwide and to include all electronic media, so there is no argument about legality.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Right a world wide law like that would ever happen.



L.W.