Tape Exchange

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TO: internet:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harvey's fleshing out of my "vision" (how grand-sounding) is
pretty much right. However, much of the material I'm seeing goes
beyond home DAT w/syn stuff. It's often semi-pro or even
professional regional bands that have spent money in the studio
or on live recording to come up with an album (often a CD) of middling
recording quality and who knows what musical quality, but with
little distribution beyond the artist's gigs.

Much of the discussion yesterday assumes a compilation tape, like
the Blues-L or elusive HARP-L tape, but that's not necessarily
the main product. Anthologies are useful and desirable, but I'm
also talking about making full single-artist album-length tapes
available. If the artist is willing and trusts the regional
operators to pay him/her/them any royalties, or, in the case of
tape trees (an option I didn't know about), is willing to forfeit
royalties in the belief that musical shareware will bring him
orders (the tree "fruits" would have to contain ordering
information for each cut), there's no reason not to make this an
option for low-level commercial activity. For some artists, this
will lead to real commercial success, and some will use this as a
part of their quest to "make it," which is fine, but the focus is
always in the grassroots.

By the way, the Harp-l tape didn't materialize in part because
there was almost nothing contributed to put on it. In the case
here, there is already plenty of product, if artists are willing
to participate.

I see volunteers popping up and saying, "where do I sign up?"
Where indeed? DO we need a central authority, or just a
horizontal consensus, some ground rules, and cooperative activity
starting at the beginning - with one or two individuals taking
the first step?

So what's the first step? Agreement among the operators, and a
workable offering to the buying public and to contributing
artists.

In order to gain agreement from artists to use their product, and
in order to get listeners to buy it, prices must be arrived at,
and artist compensation rates and usage agreements must be
established and standardized.

Prices must take into account cost of media (cassettes, boxes,
photocopied J-cards), mailing (postage, packaging and related
expenses), some standard amount for general handling by the
regional operator, and some kind of compensation to artists. What
about $8.00 for a 60-minute cassette and $10.00 for a 90. Too
high (buyers may not bite)? Too low (not covering costs)?

Regional operators need to talk among themselves and come to a
pricing agreement. There can be no exceptions for any reason,
including artist demands for compensation. If artists can't find
value in the combination of exposure and remuneration, this is not
the medium for them.

Likewise, a standard compensation to artists must be established,
together with a fixed standard of presentation: only two lengths
of tape (60 and 90), and only photocpied black-and-white artwork,
with a standard size of j-card. Again - no exceptions.
Duplication cannot place exceptional demands on regional
operators.

How about artist compensation of $1.00 per cassette, and 15 cents
per anthology song, per cassette sold?

Regional operators also need to work out a method for keeping
track of product sold and compensation due artists, together with
a method of forwarding compensation - does each operator pay
all artists separately, or are accounts consolidated, with each
operator paying only the artists in his/her region for worldwide
sales as reported by all operators? These are the kinds of things
regional operators will have to discuss and establish.

Finally, a standard copyright usage contract must be agreed upon
for use of the artist's intellectual property, giving the
regional operator and his/her counterparts clear title to
reproduce and distribute the artists' specific works in a
specific and limited manner. Many artists will be glad of the
exposure, but many will also fear loss of control of their
product and revenues to be derived therefrom.

The one problem I see here is that of intellectual property
rights not vested in the artist. Joe Harpsucker can bestow rights
to his performances and compositions, but not to Little Walter's
or Stevie Wonder's compositions. Hmm. I wonder if there are some
kind of amateur usage loopholes. People commonly and cheerfully
ignore copyright laws in grassroots productions, but they do so
at considerable legal peril. Perhaps original and public domain
material only?

Once these things are done, the alliance can be publicized - on
the lists, in the harp rags (no need for apologies, Harvey), and
in direct response mail - i.e. if a guy sends me his tape, I can
send back an alliance blurb with a usage agreement to sign and a
list of regional addresses where he can send his tape.

Winslow