TV Writers Aren’t The Only Ones Who Should Strike
I am not sure how many of you follow the news closely and know about the TV writers strike that began today. Basically, members of the Writers Guild, including people like Tina Fey and other major writers, are picketing to get the money they deserve. The networks currently are putting their television shows for streaming and download on the internet, but the writers are not getting compensated for this. The networks continue to make money from internet ad revenue and other sources, while the writers only earn their cut from actual television.
As you may know my music has been on television shows such as MTV’s “Laguna Beach,” “The Hills,” ABC’s “Men in Trees,” and many more. Songwriters like myself, who have music on television shows, collect payment and royalties from the television end–but I feel we have been getting ripped on digital end. These shows continue to be downloaded from iTunes or streamed over the networks websites collecting ad revenue with our songs on them, but we see nothing.
A lot of songwriters should strike, and songwriter organizations like ASCAP and BMI should get behind them, but we can’t. Because, as soon as we say they can’t use the songs until we get paid fairly, they will move onto the next songwriter. And they know how desperate some songwriters can be, especially at the early stages of their career, and take advantage of them. I am not saying that everyone out there is an amazing songwriter, but there are certainly more songwriters than there are TV writers.
I don’t have a solution at this time–I just wanted to address everyone. The music industry already has so many other problems, so let’s deal with this one and get it out of the way.
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