The world of music licensing and distribution is pretty complex. So when I read an article about venues scrapping live music because they’re being harassed for licensing fees, I have to resist the urge to leap directly from zen to foaming at the mouth.

The gist of the article is that ASCAP and BMI are becoming aggressive about collecting licensing fees from small venues to the point where a lot of them are simply opting to no longer offer live music. The minimum yearly licensing fee is $650 in order to “be legal” and ensure that the authors of any cover songs performed in your venue are properly compensated ($650 to each company, mind you). That’s either the deal of the century or a deal-breaker, depending on the number of cover songs performed in your venue over the course of a year.

My knee-jerk instinct is to get raving mad at “the man,” aka the corporate music industry. If the trend mentioned in the article continues, there will be far fewer places for the bands I love to get the exposure they so desperately need. When a venue closes to live music, it affects *all performers* who might use the space including indie bands, open mic participants, local singer-songwriters, etc. Regardless of whether they play cover tunes, or whether they themselves hold licenses for their work, they’re being deprived of performance space and potential revenue. That ain’t good, no matter how you look at it.

However, I have too many unanswered questions to feel comfortable unleashing a rant, which is what I sat down fully intending to do. I was picturing something along the lines of a Snidely Whiplash-type dude cackling and saying, “Muahahahaha! We will crush you, indie bands! One way or the other!” But my gut tells me it just isn’t that simple. What I would love is if my musician friends would take some time to comment and help me better understand this issue.

Because let me tell you, if Snidely really is behind the scenes twirling his moustache, I will unleash hell not only in this space, but in every online space that I occupy. (As a trailer for you fans of creative profanity, the words doucheweasels, assclowns and fucktards will be used in abundance).

Some of you many not know that this blog is actually an experiment in preparation for a blog I plan to launch later this year. I’m using it to try out things like WordPress plugins, Google analytics, and various methods of formatting posts, etc. before I launch my “for profit” blog later this year.

I’ve registered the domain demetershearth.com and plan to offer my own brand of information and advice on homekeeping, cooking, shopping, and general life management. It will focus on doing these tasks with joy and intention, and viewing them as life-enriching rather than burdensome.

I will not be posting a lot of “you should feel guilty if you’re not doing this” or “be warned about the dangers of that.” My blog will be all about embracing the things that make sense in one’s life and not worrying about the rest. In my opinion, our society deals out way too much guilt and fear as it is. I’m thinking about subtitling it “the anti-Good Housekeeping.” (If you’ve read a women’s magazine lately, you know what I’m talking about!)

I’d love to hear comments in this space about what you all think about this idea.