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The MP3 () has been Discontinued
Due to recent U.S. copyright legislation, I've
discontinued the practice of offering free downloads of my performances of cover
songs for which I don't own copyright. I've never collected payment for
these recordings, however, as a songwriter, I recognize the importance of
royalty-based revenues to the songwriter, and unfortunately, cannot afford to
pay for digital licenses to support the practice of paying tribute to other
writers' works.
If you wish to hear my rendition of (), I
invite you to attend one of my live performances, the last frontier in which I
may present such tributes devoid of the threat of civil and/or criminal
prosecution. Please understand that I still respect hundreds of artists'
works, signed and unsigned for personal enjoyment and the gratification of
giving my own voice to their creation. The climate has become increasingly
treacherous for independent artists due to legal actions initiated by the Record
Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) to continue to support the
performance in all media of works by artists this association represents. I'm not
interested in going to jail because I recorded my own version of a Metallica
song.
As a songwriter who has devoted a lifetime to pursuing music
and it's creation, I'm saddened by the climate that exists for the true music
listener and lover. It's tragic that established acts have resorted to
suing their fans to get additional revenues they feel are necessary to their
further pursuit of creating music. The amount of effort that goes into
covering one song is tremendous and involves listening countless times to that
piece, transcribing the lyrics, chords and arrangements and then working through
the instrumentation to make these songs come into a new life beyond what the
original artist anticipated. You can assume that the original work was
purchased otherwise you couldn't listen to it in order to pursue this
study. This is not so much a complaint as recognition that if someone were
to find one of my own works so compelling that they wished to learn, record and
present it, be my guest, and thank you for acknowledging my song. If you
make some money off it, please cut me in on the take, but if not, thank you,
still. It's a shame there are artists who seem preoccupied with requiring
some sort of compensation for their work beyond the gratification of being
allowed to be a creator of music; a truly fortunate blessing to have.
If you're interested in this issue, the following
resources will help you become better educated on what's involved in independent
artists learning, preparing, performing, and distributing (for free, or
otherwise) the works of other published artists. My deepest regrets you
were unable to obtain my version of (). I hope you
understand. Feel free to listen to any of my own original works posted
rampantly for streaming, or download anywhere on this site.
Thank you for your understanding.
Van -- Wed Sep 29 16:42:57 MST 2004
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