SQUAWKS #1
SQUAWKS
Welcome to the first installment of SQUAWKS, the Keltstache Blog! Let’s kibitz about your music for a bit. It’s YOUR music….You Love it….You hug it at night…..You’re proud of it…..You talk to it sweetly….It echos in your head…..And why not? It’s your baby, right!
Beautiful! Now, take that music and make it available to a world where identities are stolen and scammers abide, and your baby is in danger of being heisted! Stolen right out of the cradle! Don’t say never, it happens all the time!
I will tell you a story my young Padawan, and it is as true as the hair in my nose! Many years ago when my band and I started releasing music, another Indie artist suggested I register my music. Well, I did that, and it cost me some bucks I didn’t have at the time. And I know, I know, people say that when your music gets played on the radio, that’s proof positive it is yours, and nobody else’s. Fine! I heard that more than not. For me that wasn’t enough, so I worked with ASCAP, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and had my songs and album registered. CD Baby has a service also which I hope you check out as well as ASCAP ( I know, ASCAP Beavis)
Anywho, a few months later, while surfing the web, I came across a KIN’DRED band out of Nigeria. Same name spelled the same, yada yada, and this band was taking credit for the song SHARK! Well, SHARK was our first single release, and I listened to it. Damn! That’s my tunage! There was a contact number, and I called and reached a person…And isn’t it weird that when you catch someone in the act od screwing you over, they get mad at YOU? Well, words flew I’ll tell ya! At the end of the convo I called him ‘Hippo’….um….’Dung’, you get me? And told him my music was legally registered, and if he persisted there would be serious legal issues. I will say, that we had been recently signed, so, Ok Kimbo, weren’t you protected by the company, and if so, what’s your beef and how does that help me?
Well, I felt that I was not only protected by the record company, but more so that I was protected by having registered my music. Another point to consider is, what if the record company becomes inactive or dissolves, and that lawyer they had on retainer no longer works for them? That means any legal problem with plagiarism or the downright thievery of your brand falls to you. Lawyers aren’t cheap at two to four hundred bucks an hour! Cheaper to get the stuff registered don’t you think?
I am Indie again, as the company that signed us is no longer an entity, however my music, my creations, my soul, is mine by what I did years ago, and I am still protected. It’s like getting a copyright, and it is well worth the time, effort and clams spent! I mean, you want to read a horror story? Check out online about the legal debacle of Creedence Clearwater Revival versus Fantasy Records and it’s owner! Shivers! They were Indie too at the start, by the way.
As an Indie artist you’ve got a lot on your plate as it is. One less worry or stress can be quashed by making the effort to see to it YOUR music stays YOURs!
Until next time, Rock Onward!