Good News …and The Same-Ol’-Same-Ol’

There ARE some nice things in this flurry of legislation such as the “No FAKES Act” (FAKE stands for “Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe”) This heroic effort is trying to protect musicians from deep-fake AI takeover. Of course–if successful–No FAKES will help the already famous and wealthy “songtrack of our lives” folks the most. There really aren’t many deep fakes out there of the latest modern chamber orchestra or your favorite local jazz quartet. But that might keep The Beatles and Tay-Tay more safe. And that is a very good thing. But what about the aforementioned conundrum of recorded music?

If you give a close look at the rest of the legislation, you find that if anything, it will protect those corporate folk in the music world who are already making money: record labels and the goon-like organizations who suck up to them. (Wow! That sounds catty, no? Well, I haven’t eaten in a while. Cut me some slack.🤠)

There are also two pieces of legislation that are designed to help with the cray-cray ticket price/acquisition problems: “The Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act” and The Mitigating Automated Internet Networks (MAIN) for Event Ticketing Act. As an aside… I really dig the time and effort they all took to come up with these clever acronyms. Did someone get paid for that, or did they do it for free. I wonder?

I am all for reducing ticket prices, but performing live is the only recourse that artists have left where they can make money, so we should tread fairly and carefully in this arena. But I WOULD like to see Sir Paul McCartney for less than $300. I don’t think THAT is too much to ask. Just don’t reduce the price of tickets at Joe’s Slophouse where the “Internal Quandry Jazz 7-Tet” is playing next week.

So what is the takeaway here? I suppose that while it is indeed wonderful that ANYTHING concerning music is being introduced into our fractured and sluggish mess of a legistaltive body these days, I do hope that at some point (SOON!) that someone, SOMEWHERE will address the MAIN need of music creators. And what is that main need? Recognition? An audience? Nope. That real need is the fact that they simply can’t make a living wage doing that Voodoo that they do.

Music is ESSENTIAL folks. Let’s do something to keep it alive and well-fed.