The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102487   Message #2078987
Posted By: GUEST,Texas Guest
16-Jun-07 - 09:28 PM
Thread Name: Getting paid to sing in Retirement Cent.
Subject: RE: Getting paid to sing in Retirement Cent.
Highlandman - back in the time when ronald the reagan was president of these United States my old VW micro-bus just simply up and quit - and I was left without a car. Then, dear old ronald the reagan decided, in all of his wisdom, that it wasn't quite yet time to bring down the Soviet Union (which, of course, we all know he did single-handedly) so he decided to cut-back government funding for certain jobs that were available in the early 1980's and mine was one of them.
In case you are wondering, the answer is: No, there was no respect on my part for ronald the reagan before he took our jobs away; hence, no love lost there.

Taking a very long road to a point, let me say that I took a job with
ASCAP as a regional rep for those folks, in large part - because the job came with a - company car, fuel included. I came to hate the job for a hundred different reasons and I finally left after only a couple of years. I also don't talk about it for a hundred other different reasons, not the least of which is that musicians who are not members of ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc., or any other licensing agency want to discuss it far too often. That, in itself, is not bad; but, the fact is that most of them have not a lick of knowledge about how and why ASCAP, BMI, etc., works and exists - ignorance abounds in most of these discussions, along with the vigorous assurance on the part of the speaker that they know what they are talking about.

As regards retirement homes and nursing centers, I think that it can be reasonably argued that the owner of said facilities is not making
money off of the performance of music in his facility; unlike a pub owner who is using live (or recorded) music that he/she does not own to attract patrons who will then come inside so he/she can profit.
And that, my friend, is not only my opinion, but also that of Kookla,
Fran and Ollie. Cheers.