If you're an artist....or an artist/writer, some of what she says makes sense.

But put on your songwriter hat for a minute. What if you're NOT a performing songwriter? If you're not an artist? Tell me how well giving your music away and hoping for benevolent patronage works out for you.

I can tell you exactly how it will work out, because it's already happened. Since the advent of "free" music (when Napster started in 1999), 80% of American professional songwriters have quit the business. Think about that number for a minute. 80%.

I'll put it on a local level. In Nashville, at the high-water mark in the 90s there were around 4,500 full-time songwriters signed to staff writing publishing deals in Nashville. There were also around 35 labels. At present, best estimate is that there are somewhere between 250-350 full time songwriters signed to publishing companies. The number of labels is down around single digits, depending on your criteria for legit labels.

If you're a performing artist, you get paid (or SHOULD get paid) to play. You sell merch - t-shirts, ball caps, koozies, CDs still, etc. I know dozens of artist who make the majority of their income from merch. Guess how much of that money goes to the writers who wrote the songs they perform .... zero.

Maybe some of you, when you perform, submit a playlist to ASCAP OnStage or BMI Live. If you don't, even though the venue pays license fees to the PROs, the writers of the songs you perform may not receive any royalties (and probably don't).

So forgive me if I don't buy into what she's selling, because what she's selling is helping destroy my profession.

http://www.rogerbrownsongs.com
http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/roger-brown