Covers bands - are they just parasites? (& how PRS works)

[Downunderwonder]

6 hours ago, TimR said:

https://www.prsformusic.com/royalties/report-live-performances

 

 

First BC popped a install certificate request which I ignored.

 

Then it wanted to stuff me full of cookies with no decline option.

 

Pass.

[Thump]

I quite enjoy a good covers band , but i always end up more interested in the gear they are using.

 

Can't help it, GAS never sleeps

Edited September 26, 2023 by Thump

[BigRedX]

11 hours ago, Richard R said:

 

From which I conclude that The Terrortones wrote far more and almost certainly better songs than I have to date. 

 

While I'd like to think that it was all down to my compositional prowess, in reality we had an outrageous exhibitionist front man which got us lots of gigs. At one point we could have been playing every Friday and Saturday night had the money and logistics been right. And despite the fact that we were writing at least one new song every month, I'm pretty sure that we could also have played a very similar 10-song set for the entirety of our 6 year existence.

[BigRedX]

8 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

First BC popped a install certificate request which I ignored.

 

Then it wanted to stuff me full of cookies with no decline option.

 

Pass.

 

As a resident of NZ if your are playing songs that you wrote, then you are better off joining whatever PRO specifically covers your country rather than one based in the UK. Also if you can't be bothered, I'm sure Bono, Elton John, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran will happily take what would have been your share of performance royalties. Maybe at some point some of it will even trickle down to me, so in advance I'll say "thank you (sucker)".

[Downunderwonder]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

As a resident of NZ if your are playing songs that you wrote, then you are better off joining whatever PRO specifically covers your country rather than one based in the UK. Also if you can't be bothered, I'm sure Bono, Elton John, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran will happily take what would have been your share of performance royalties. Maybe at some point some of it will even trickle down to me, so in advance I'll say "thank you (sucker)".

I was only curious about the UK situation. My old band wrote a jingle for a radio station foc. Enjoy your infinitesimal portion of 1p, except I am.not sure you get any as it was in NZ.

[Rosie C]

On 25/09/2023 at 16:25, Richard R said:

I think the conclusion is that it's not parasitic. BUT there are two important lessons: 

1. If you play covers you should do the honourable thing and submit your set lists to the PRS so that artists do get a share of the pie (even though it IS the venue's responsibility)

2. If you play originals, especially if you wrote them,  then you absolutely should submit the set lists, otherwise you will miss out on 2½d per year royalties.

 

I didn't know we could do this. My current band mostly played mediaeval tunes this year, but we're rehearsing a few Blackmore's Night songs for Christmas - and we wondered how they'd ever get any benefit from us. It is odd how straightforward performing covers at a venue is (through PRS), compared to uploading the same performance on YouTube and navigating copyright strikes.

 

[choob.squeemer]

Well - just read this whole thread  - gotta say  Ugly Dogs reply on page 6 is absolutely spot on - yep god I love this place too

[Paul S]

On 25/09/2023 at 17:31, Dad3353 said:

 

It's always the same response: you should be paid for all the hours you spent on the Planet, living and breathing, just like everyone else. You can't have spent more than twenty-four hours a day doing whatever you were doing. Once you have enough to live on, the same as everyone else on the Planet, whet more is there..? Writing and preparing a book is worth just as much, in Time spent, as planting and gathering carrots, or open-heart surgery. It's only hours of our lives that have any 'real' value at all.
I realise, of course, that this makes no sense in parallel with the current 'worth' system, where one's worth is measured against a different yardstick. Time is my yardstick, and we all have our own 'capital', all of identical 'worth'. 

 

It is a very strange type of world that you envisage, Douglas, where expertise, experience and skill count for nothing and not rewarded.  What would drive people to achieve those aims other than altruism, which is all too rare?  You are a rare and lovely human being, sir, and I take my hat off to you, but reality is a hostile environment.  

[Steve Browning]

I think it's fairly obvious we're creating a Utopia. If no-one joined an army, there's be no war. Not very likely, but nevertheless true.

[TimR]

We have all been in bands long enough to know that human nature means you need leaders and followers and without certain leaders nothing gets done. 

 

And if certain members don't pull their weight people get upset very quickly. 

 

And that's even more true when all finances are equally split. There are then arguments about how much is put into the common band pot (taxation) and who gets benefit of the PA. 

 

Before you implement full scale communism you must first fix human nature. Good luck. 

[Dad3353]

I'm well aware that I'm convincing no-one that my World, without greed, without all of these scarecrow  '-ism's', without these extremes of so-called 'wealth', without these levers towards cupidity, jealousy and even plain ol' hunger is a Good Place. OK, OK; it's Human Nature, innit..? Maybe I'm just less Human than most. OK, OK; I can live with that. A bit tough on all the others on the Planet, but I can do no more than my best, so we'll leave it there. Change nothing, and Good Luck to all who sail in her.