It’s a gift article so can read it without bumping into the firewall.
I’m so damned happy I didn't buy into the licensing thing, even with JLicense.Because all their dreams are about to come true, but not at my expense.
Yeah, I’m snorting into my sleeve about this, it’s true. I fully expect that ASCAP will eventually follow suit. Why? Because making money is never enough when you can make more money. Sooner or later, someone always wants to make more money. It’s a carnival ride that can’t be stopped until it goes completely off the rails. And I don't really care when it goes off the rails, because I’m not on the ride.
One day, Bandcamp will falter or close down. It’s now been owned by three different companies in a year’s time, and the only thing I can be completely sure of is that whatever changes are eventually made to the platform will benefit the shareholders first, and the artists like fifth or seventh or something.
(I predict that the same thing will likely happen with as well, if for no other reason than the great unchurching of America. There just won’t be enough synagogues with real music resources to support the model in the future.)
In order to get one of my songs from a previous album included on iTunes with the rest of the album — back before I knew better and still thought that was a good idea — I had to sign up for something called SounDrop. That was back in 2018. Five years ago. In that time, I’ve earned about twenty bucks from SounDrop in digital sales.
Twenty bucks in five years.
However, I had neglected to give them my tax info so that they could release those funds to me AND simultaneously report it to the IRS on my behalf. Because sure, I dream of sitting around collecting those royalties, all twenty bucks worth, just so I can get taxed on them.
I think the idea of getting taxed on so little is offensive, especially since the Tech Bros are getting zillions of dollars’ worth of tax breaks. So I am content to let that money sit right where it is, and not share my info with SounDrop so they can rat on me. If they’ve made their cut (which presumably is at least as much as I’ve made, if not more), they can do whatever they want with mine, since they’ve cared so little about promoting my release when it was brand new. Because I’m one of a zillion very small, independent artists who will never make them enough money to care about me or my music. Because why? Say it with me kids, you know how this goes: because in the digital world, music is mere content, one’s and zeros — and not actual art. So yeah, the Tech Bros can bite me.
Forgive me for not caring what happens to these bloated juggernauts.
When it all comes crashing down in a decade or two, they’ll be holding the bag and I’ll still be picking through local “free” boxes for my next button-down shirt. Nothing will have changed all that much for me, and I am fine with that. I know all about impermanence, and I am largely okay with mine.
