The Mistreatment Of Professional Musicians

As a professional musician who performs regularly, writes & produces his own music and licenses it to, I felt that this MUST be shared among anyone and everyone, as it clarifies in it's entirety what some of the biggest companies in the world and the people that run them generally 'think' of musicians, essentially clarifying the state of the music world.

This was shared by a friend of mine & fellow musician/songwriter online, please read it....

The main reason for my sharing & blogging of the above email is because I have been here many times before, basically having companies literally try and take the piss and want my music for their 'upcoming project', which they don't have an actual budget for and wish to use my product(s) with the 'promise' of payment when they 'get paid'. Nothing comes for free.

I'll reiterate one instance, when a production company based out of California contacted me requesting to use two of my tracks that were on Myspace at the time for an Independent movie that had 'major names' that they 'couldn't divulge for legal reasons', which if you're fluent in translating and the speaking of bullshit means, "we've got nothing, not a name at all".

Oh, but this gets better people, see once I posed the eventual question, "how did you come by music and obtain my contact details?" They cited that they "knew of me through a famous musician based in America" (for reference notes, I'm friends with a few famous musicians, but for the basis of this story I will keep their identity private as their name does not require divulging), but that's not the best part, it was one of those companies that want YOU to pay THEM before THEY can pay YOU. If you're stupid enough to pay any company to get YOU work with no legitimate guarantee of a return and profit on your return, then you'll learn a valuable lesson in the art of being a complete and utter dumbass, tenfold.

It's not companies like iTunes that are killing music, it's pieces of shit companies that treat musicians like they're retarded and can be walked all over and have their worl used for nothing. If your boss at your job asked you to work next week for free, would you? Would you fuck. You'd tell him to reconsider his stupid fucking proposal before you walk.

Music is one of the greatest, no, it is THE greatest art form, period. It's the one thing that connects everybody. Everyone loves music, regardless of genres, styles and bands, we all love music, especially those like myself that record our own and perform it live week in, week out, Without the modern day independent artists filling up the blankets of new music worldwide, all the major artists signed to the last bastion of major record labels would not be as relevant as they are. There needs to be a balance, but there also needs to be new music and new artists to come through the ranks.

As I said, companies like the one the gentleman replying to in the email above have no conscience about their thought process, nor will they ever give a shit, because they have major financing & can continually attempt to take the piss until they fuck off up their own ass. Though ask yourself....is the struggle worth the hassle? Answer, you don't know 'til you try. Just don't lose sight of what's important to you. You only live once, so be smart....try to be....