Theatre Without Borders

Want to be inspired for 2012?

To celebrate the New Year and spark your creative travels take a look at the Festival Year in Review. KadmusArts brings together some of the best images from last year’s festival performances with music by Blitz The Ambassador.

All of these photos come from festival producers and promoters, artists and bands, audiences and fans in 155 countries who use our leading portal for every live event festival in the world, to travel, discover and create.

Born in Ghana and now based in New York, Blitz is one of the freshest and most talented hip hop artists working today. If you haven’t heard his music yet, be sure to check him out online and on tour.

For the KadmusArts Festival Year in Review, we think Blitz’s song Best I Can is a perfect synthesis of the beat and the spirit shared by all KadmusArts festival travelers.

In 2012 may we all do the Best We Can to create a festive life every day.

Here’s hoping we meet online and at a KadmusArts festival soon!

From all of us at KadmusArts,
Happy 2012!

Photo by Mash Hatae — Some Rights Reserved

To honor our shared global cultural heritage and inspiration, remember the artists and producers who passed away in 2011:

Actors
Tom Aldredge
Dev Anand
James Arness
Trevor Bannister
Roberts Blossom
Eve Brent
Janet Brown
Annette Charles
Jackie Cooper
Jeff Conaway
Peter Donaldson
Betty Driver
Vic Dunlop
Ryan Dunn
Peter Falk
Mary Fickett
Anne Francis
Betty Garrett
Annie Girardot
Farley Granger
Michael Gough
Edward Hardwicke
Jill Haworth
Dolores Hope
Bill Hunter
MF Hussain
Bella Itkin
Margaret John
Shammi Kapoor
Miriam Karlin
Mick Karn
Phil Kennemore
Barbara Kent
Al Kozlik
Claude Laydu
Shifra Lerer
Claude Léveillée
Sam Loco-Efe
Phyllis Love
Kenneth Mars
Anna Massey
Bill McKinney
Harry Morgan
Mary Murphy
David Ngoombujarra
Per Oscarsson
Richard Pearson
Marie-France Pisier
Alice Playten
Pete Postlethwaite
Peggy Rea
Cliff Robertson
Wayne Robson
Jane Russell
Michael Sarrazin
Maria Schneider
Nicholas Selby
Roy Skelton
Bill Skiles
Elisabeth Sladen
G.D. Spradlin
Helen Stenborg
Elaine Stewart
Leonard Stone
Hideko Takamine
Clarice Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Sada Thompson
Gordon Tootoosis
Margaret Tyzack
Vicco von Bülow
Jane White
Andy Whitfield
Googie Withers
John Wood
Dana Wynter
Susannah York
Dorothy Young
Rosel Zech

Arts Critics & Scholars
Ruby Cohn
Frank Driggs
Jeanette Ingberman
Dragan Klaic
Leo Serban
Gene Smith
Leo Steinberg

Dance
Jerry Ames
Edward Bigelow
Gill Clarke
Felicity “Flick” Colby
Donya Feuer
Matteo
Roland Petit
Garry Reigenborn
Lois Smith
Nina Sorokina

Directors
Jordan Belson
Michael Cacoyannis
Liviu Ciulei
Charles Dubin
Charles Jarrott
Leonard Kastle
Mani Kaul
George Kuchar
Michael Langham
Richard Leacock
Douglas Alan Mann
Tareque Masud
Adolfas Mekas
Juliano Mer-Khamis
John Neville
Bruce Ricker
Raúl Ruiz
Ken Russell
Otakar Vavra
Gary Winick
Peter Yates

Musicians & Music Biz
Dino Anagnost
Liz Anderson
Joe Arroyo
Nick Ashford
Milton Babbitt
Kenny Baker
Billy Bang
Ross Barbour
John Barry
Travis Bean

Musicians, cont.
Gil Bernal
Doyle Bramhall
Simon Brint
Joseph Brooks
Ray Bryant
Philip “Fattis” Burrell
Roger Butlin
Eugene Byrne
Facundo Cabral
DeLois Barrett Campbell
Daniel Catán
Adam Chisvo
Clarence Clemons
James “Glen” Croker
Heavy D
Beryl Davis
Hazel Dickens
Jean Dinning
Jessy Dixon
Frank Dileo
Cornell Dupree
Esther Gordy Edwards
Christy Essien-Igbokwe
Cesaria Evora
Bob Flanigan
Montserrat Figueras
Larry “Wild Man” Fischer
Wenche Foss
Frank Foster
Carl Gardner
Andrew Gold
Billy Grammer
Marshall Grant
Manuel Galban
Dobie Gray
Bernard Greenhouse
Rob Grill
Lord Harewood
Jet Harris
Cyril M. Harris
Sidney Harth
Raphael Hillyer
Lee Hoiby
Loleatta Holloway
Gladys Horton
Ferlin Husky
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
Musa Juma
Sena Jurinac
John Kendall
Sultan Khan
Kathy Kirby
Eddie Kirkland
Don Kirschner
Alex Kirst
Moogy Klingman
Lloyd Knibb
Yakov Kreizberg
Jani Lane
Jerry Leiber
Arthur Lessac
Salvatore Licitra
Peter Lieberson
Charlie Louvin
Gene McDaniels
Cornell MacNeil
Wade Mainer
Robert Marcucci
Hugh Martin, Jr.
Max Mathews
Huey Meaux
DJ Mehdi
Alphonso “Fonce” Mizell
Money Clip D
Ralph Mooney
Gary Moore
Joe Morello
Paul Motian
Philipp Naegele
Cristian Paturca
Dan Peek
Nikolai Petrov
Nilla Pizzi
Lee Pockriss
Johnny Preston
Margaret Price
Wardell Quezergue
Johnny Raducanu
Jerry Ragovoy
Gerry Rafferty
Gil Robbins
Alys Robi
Coco Robicheaux
Edmundo Ros
Martin Rushent
Brian Rust
Pinetop Perkins
Kurt Sanderling
Taiji Sawada
George Shearing
Gerard Smith
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith
Johannes Somary
Melvin Sparks
Billie Joe Spears
Mike Starr
John Steane
Fred Steiner
John Strauss
Josef Suk
Hubert Sumlin
Poly Styrene
Montae (M-Bone) Talbert
Bill Tapia
Howard Tate
Robert Tear
Jack Towers
Giorgio Tozzi
Faye Treadwell
Andrea True
Ling Tung
Rolando Valdés Blain
Emanuel Vardi
Violetta Villas
John Walker
Margaret Whiting
Doc Williams
Vesta Williams
Joe Lee Wilson
Amy Winehouse
Judd Woldin
Johnnie Wright
Snooky Young

Photographers
T. Lux Feininger
Gunnar Fischer
Jerome Liebling
Jim Rodnunsky
Robert Whitaker

Producers
John Atterberry
Bob Banner
John Calley
Gil Cates
John Cossette
John Howard Davies
Marion Dougherty
Bernd Eichinger
Paul Iles
Marketa Kimbrell
Leo Kirch
David Y.H. Lui
Lou Maletta
Eva Monley
William Patton
Polly Platt
Bobby Robinson
Sherwood Schwartz
Rodney Smith
Ellen Stewart
Randall L. Wreghitt
Laura Ziskin

Publishers & Book Biz
Price Berkley
A. Whitney Ellsworth
George Whitman

Sound
Tom Keith
Norio Ohga
Pete Rugolo

Visual Arts & Design
Ray Aghayan
Theoni Aldredge
Thomas Armstrong III
Robert Breer
Byron Burford
Françoise Cachin
Leonora Carrington
Stephen De Staebler
Norton Dodge
Roy Gussow
Mark Hall
Richard Hamilton
Budd Hopkins
John Hoyland
Harry Jackson
Gabriel Laderman
Gerald Laing
Gilbert “Magu” Lujan
Duffy Lyon (“Butter Cow Lady”)
Ján Man?uška
Jose Torres Martino
John McCracken
Robert Miller
Roman Opalka
Dennis Oppenheim
Pat Passlof
Prince Twins Seven-Seven
Alex Steinweiss
Dugald Stermer
Hedda Sterne
Zden?k Sýkora
George Tooker
Cy Twombly
Alan Uglow
Theadora Van Runkle
June Wayne

Writers & Poets
Harry Bernstein
Lilian Jackson Braun
Henry Carlisle
Jo Carson
Andrée Chedid
Gene Colan
David Croft
L.J. Davis
Shelagh Delaney
Sam Denoff
B.H. Friedman
Patrick Galvin
Pam Gems
Edouard Glissant
David Zelag Goodman
John Gross
John Haines
Josephine Hart
Vaclav Havel
Christopher Hitchens
Edwin Honig
Brian Jacques
Hal Kanter
Bil Keane
Sakyo Komatsu
Agota Kristof
Jay Landesman
Romulus Linney
Christopher Logue
Arnošt Lustig
Allen Mandelbaum
Anna Mashutina (Yabolonskaya)
Anne McCaffrey
Dwayne McDuffie
James McLure
Zdenek Miler
Al Morgan
Bill Morrison
David Nevin
Anant Pai
Reynolds Price
Jerry Robinson
Gonzalo Rojas
Abraham Rothberg
Ernesto Sabato
Jimmy Sangster
Mildred Savage
Jorge Semprun
Joe Simon
Badal Sircar
Leonard B. Stern
Ruth Stone
Craig Thomas
Piri Thomas
Janine Pommy Vega
Doric Wilson
Lanford Wilson
Jennifer Worth

- Bill Reichblum

Photo by John Martinez Pavliga — Some Rights Reserved

Holiday season is toy season and toys tell a lot about ourselves.

In the old days, when visiting someone for the first time, one of the best ways of learning about them was to peruse their bookshelves. What had they read? In what book categories (literature, science fiction, biography, history, etc.) did they have the most titles? What books appeared to be prize possessions?

Today we delve into their social networks. What photos do they choose to post? What are their “Likes” on Facebook? What kind of information do they tweet?

The difference between the two methods is that one reveals the person (books on the shelf) and one shows the person as they want to be shown.

Now, there’s another way to learn about someone and their cultural associations: What kind of toys they have.

According to a recent article in The Economist, toy buying habits can shine a light on national tastes and character. Research from the NPD Group shows German parents buy the most toy building sets. Germany is also the biggest European market for Legos. Spain leads with the most doll purchases.

The Brits lead Europe with buying the most toys — 41 per year. They also lead Europe with buying the greatest amount of licensed merchandise, almost one third of all toy purchases. Globally, the top licensed merchandise sellers (in alphabetical order) are Barbie, Disney Princess, Dora The Explorer, Star Wars, and Toy Story. Are you starting to get a picture of our cultural training?

In 2010 the toy market increased by 5%, for a whopping $83.3 billion in sales. The United States led with a $22 billion market followed by Japan, China, the United Kingdom and France. These five nations make up just over 50% of the total market. Apparently, about half of all toy purchases are items specifically requested by the children.

What’s the key draw for a toy? Apparently the most attractive feature is something that the kid can play with alone and for a long time without getting bored. Yes, that’s right: “Sweetheart, go play on your own; and, go play for a long time.”

No wonder an online company such as Facebook is so successful. This is what we’ve been trained and educated to do: play alone and stave off the boredom of existence.

Of course, the old fashioned amongst us still believe that the best “toy” for playing alone and for a long time would be a book. Not only is the kid occupied, they just might discover insights into the world we live in, politics, other people, and even themselves.

We can’t miss the opportunity to plug one other gift solution for the holiday season. Why not do something that you can all play together and that is as entertaining as it is mind-expanding: Go to a Festival!

This month there are hundreds of live event festivals taking place in the world. Surely, at least one of them fits your budget and is worth your time. Trust us, the experience will last longer than any new toy.

- Bill Reichblum

Do you have a great festival picture? Be part of our 2011 Festival Year in Review!

Each year to celebrate the New Year, KadmusArts creates a video feature of the best festival photographs submitted by festival presenters and promoters, artists and bands, audiences and fans from around the world. 

Last year’s Festival Year in Review also featured the incomparable music of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. They provided the perfect song as a soundtrack for festival memories and inspiration: All Over Again.

Submissions are pouring in for our selection process for the 2011 Festival Year in Review. If you have photos that capture the spirit, thrill, and fun of a festival, please submit up to 5 choices.  The deadline is December 9, 2011, 4:00pm EST.  Don’t miss out on being included!  

Photographs should be sized at least 1024 x 768 pixels, or 1 megapixel. Also include all relevant credit information so that we can properly give credit to the photographer and to the event.

Of course, if you have any questions about formatting or the feature, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

KadmusArts.com is the most popular and comprehensive online connection to every kind of live event festival in the world. Our mission is to help connect festivals, artists and audiences to travel, to discover, and to create. 

We look forward to seeing your festival photos of where you have travelled; what you have discovered; and, what you have created!

- Bill Reichblum

Photo by Pierre Pouliquin — Some Rights Reserved

Festivals are growing up.

When one usually thinks of a festival crowd, one hears great music and sees throngs of young people dancing, drinking, and debauching with abandon. Somehow, if it’s not an updated and live version of the Woodstock film it just isn’t much of a festival.

However, that’s not the reality of the festival market, and more importantly, one of the important festival trends. Festivals and their audiences are growing up.

Of course there are still thousands of festivals that attract today’s youth for today’s music and art. Today’s crowds are safer and more community minded than ever before. There are still wild and wonderful days and nights, but given the crowds of thousands and even hundreds of thousands it can be amazing to see how well organized, how thoughtful, and how caring these young audiences are. The festival youth trend is clear: crime is down; fun is up.

Festivals are getting wiser with age as well. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and posted in KadmusArts’ daily Culture News, grown-up festivals are tailoring their product and festival experience to an adult demographic. These festivals are not about old singers singing old songs to old audiences. Festivals still thrive when they create an experience of discovery: mix acts you know with ones you don’t.

While big festivals still draw hundreds of thousands of fans, there is a growing sweet spot in boutique festivals that are thriving with a more narrow focus on older audiences. Who loses their love for music? Who loses their joy for the live experience?

There is good business in tailoring festivals to the generations who have grown up and out of Woodstock.

Festivals are smart enough to follow the music and the money: adult rock and adult experience add up to adult money.

- Bill Reichblum

Photo by Wally Gobetz — Some Rights Reserved

Forget the drugs. Forget the trips. Remember the music. And, focus on the business.

While the OccupyWallSt protestors tell us what’s wrong with our system, Grateful Dead fan and professor Dr. Barry Barnes is teaching us what can be right.

Barnes, a Professor of Management at NOVA Southeastern University, has pulled his business analysis together in a new book, Everything I Know About Business I Learned from the Grateful Dead.

Yes. The business world should learn to Occupy The Dead.

Previously we looked at The Dead’s business approach to understand how to drive audiences to live events: “What Would The Grateful Dead Do?” Barnes takes The Dead model further to explore how businesses can succeed through customer integration.

With 194 Dead shows to his credit, Barnes’ analysis is not just from the academic point of view. He highlighted his Dead inspired business lessons in a recent Huffington Post column. So what are Barnes’ top Grateful Dead lessons?

–Improvise: Plan but be prepared to make adjustments, including changing your revenue model.

–It’s All About the Customer: Focus on turning a one-time customer into a lifelong fan.

–Invest in Innovation: The more money you put back into company the more the company will be worth at the end. It’s not about creating a business that will be a quick cash cow for your own vacations. It’s about doing a better job for your customers.

–Create a community: Collaborate with your customers to not only expand the brand, but help create it.

–Control Your Flow: Keep as much work as you can in-house. The do-it-yourself approach keeps you in touch with customers and gives your colleagues a shared stake in the growth.

–Lead: The more creative and fun the leadership is, the more the company communicates a culture of engagement.

–Authentic Experience: Learn from the Dead and from Festivals. After all, the key to life, love, friendships, and experiences is to experience something authentic.

Now, that’s good music and good business. Don’t you think?

- Bill Reichblum

Photo by Elliott Brown — Some Rights Reserved

If you love Twitter, does that mean you hate Shakespeare?

One of Shakespeare’s leading fans thinks Twitter and our other social networks are destroying our ability to communicate.

In accepting an award from the BFI London Film Festival, Ralph Fiennes took the opportunity to attack our “world of truncated sentences, soundbites and Twitter.” As reported by the great culture correspondent Lucy Jones of The Telegraph, Fiennes is no fan of our way of communicating: “Our expressiveness and our ease with some words is being diluted so that the sentence with more than one clause is a problem for us, and the word of more than two syllables is a problem for us.”

Fiennes, one of today’s best actors, was at BFI to premier his movie directorial debut, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. Strange that Fiennes believes that while one can change the setting of Shakespeare (the film is presented as a present tense modern warfare story), language must remain static.

Are we really suffering from our lack of iambic pentameter and stretching out our thoughts with multiple words? Isn’t there a difference between every day direct communication, and poetic language that purposely heightens a moment? In fact, don’t you think that the more concise we are in our normal exchanges, the more we can appreciate the power of poetry and the language of art?

For example, two young kids meet at a dance. The everyday exchange would start with the guy saying, “Hey. Nice to meet you.” Now, to make that brief moment one of artful romance: “If I profane with my unworthiest hand/This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:/My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand/To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” Now, that’s a memorable opening line. Heightened language increases the stakes and our connection to the moment.

Fiennes is caught in the same trap as believing that photography ruined art: Why look at a painting’s interpretation, expansion, or focus when we can have a photo to see it exactly how it is? Both photography and painting are art forms that focus attention in different ways, just as our quick and direct language on social networks focusses the communication in a different way from theatrical exchange.

Fiennes also seems to be oblivious to that other art form – irony. After all, the star of Clash of Titans I and II shortened his own name. While his full name might be more poetic, it certainly is not one to use on an eye catching poster or marquee: Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. (Now, that’s poetry!)

And, how does Fiennes promote his Coriolanus film? Why, with short catchy phrases, of course. His trailer tells you the story:

FROM THE ASHES OF WAR, HE WON GLORY.
AT THE HANDS OF HIS PEOPLE, HE WAS BETRAYED.
IN THE ARMS OF AN ENEMY, HE WILL CLAIM VENGEANCE.

His trailer also quotes the critics to convince you to come see the flick: “Stunning”; “A Triumph”; and, “Rousing and Primal”.

Want to promote Coriolanus? Fiennes has given us pretty good Twitter phrases, don’t you think?

- Bill Reichblum

The protest movement all began with the image of a ballerina on top of Wall Street’s bull.

Kalle Lasn and his colleagues at Adbusters came up with the startling image, the question, “What is Our One Demand?” and the hashtag, #OccupyWallStreet, as in “#OccupyWall Street, September 17th, Bring Tent.”

As Lasn told Sam Eifling in The Tyee, “To me it was a sublime symbol of total clarity. Here’s a body poised in this beautiful position and it spoke of this crystal-clear sublime idea behind this messy business. On top of the head it said, ‘What is our one demand?’ To me it was almost like an invitation, like if we get our act together then we can launch a revolution. It had this magical revolutionary feel to it, which you couldn’t have with the usual lefty poster which is nasty and visceral and in your face. The magic came from the fact this ballerina is so sublimely tender.”

Lasn is no stranger to inspiring cultural movements. His first “culture jam” began in a supermarket parking lot. Lasn was angry that he needed to rent a shopping cart, so instead of dropping the quarter into the machine, he jammed it so that the machine would not work.

He co-founded Adbusters in 1989 to create responses to an advertising campaign for British Columbia’s forestry industry. Other Lasn social marketing campaigns have included “Buy Nothing Day” and “TV Turnoff Week”. He continues to campaign against “arguably the most destructive product we humans have ever produced”: the car. (Want more? Read Lasn’s book: Culture Jam: How To Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge — And Why We Must.)

From his home in Vancouver, the art of Lasn has inspired a global movement.

#OccupyWallStreet is now about more than one park in downtown Manhattan. As Lasn sees it, “It has grown beyond anything I thought was possible in the early days. The mood changes every day, and this realization that all of a sudden it’s a nationwide movement in the United States and now it’s even creeping into Canada. That’s — what can I say? It’s beyond anything I imagined early on. I’ve been sort of running with it day by day, and now it feels like anything is possible. It’s a good lesson for me. I’ve always been reticent and careful and doing a lot of planning and stuff. For me personally it’s told me, don’t hold back. Just go for it. You never know what’ll happen.”

Who could have predicted a ballerina would change our view of global finance? No wonder so many are dancing in the streets for a cause.

- Bill Reichblum

Photo by Toni Blay — Some Rights Reserved

Bridge Records, led by guitarist David Starobin, should be an inspiration to the music business and to music fans.

Here’s an indy music company that is thriving and maintaining a brand that stands for something: genuine quality.

Allan Kozinn in the New York Times provides the background on Bridge’s catalogue and approach to staying current. The article precedes an upcoming Bridge retrospective anniversary concert to take place in New York on October 20th.

Over the last 30 years, Bridge has released 361 records, all of which are still available. (No small accomplishment in and of itself.) As an independent label, Bridge has produced major classical and modern recordings.

Bridge’s story is fairly simple: artist takes control to produce his own recordings; artist inspires other artists; artist facilitates business opportunities for other artists. What started as an outlet for Starobin’s own recordings expanded to become a remarkable platform for players and composers.

In addition to their recordings, Bridge is also in the business of artist management. The company is kept in the family. Starobin’s wife and two kids each work in different sides of Bridge’s business.

Unlike so many large companies that market test ideas, analyze social network penetration, and look for commercial tie-ins, Starobin’s approach is to record and manage artists he likes. That’s all there is to it. (He’s in good company. As Guy Kawasaki pointed out, Apple’s market research was only about what Steven Jobs’ thought the customer would like.)

Sometimes relying on one’s social sphere feels like a closed loop, where the same information and recommendations go from one to the other until the circle is complete and it begins again. The challenge is discovering something outside your circle, even outside of your comfort zone.

Bridge provides an old fashioned but essential model: a brand you can count on to discover new music. The music might not be the most popular, the most promoted, or the most hip. However, when you buy a Bridge product you know your music world will expand.

- Bill Reichblum

Photo by Curtis Billau — Some Rights Reserved

Forget about free music.

As posted in KadmusArts’ culture news feed, Michael Nash understands the past and has seen the future. In an interview with Greg Sandoval at CNET, Nash reflected on his years at the center of music’s digital life.

Nash is leaving his position as Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development for Warner Music Group. He has been at WMG since 2000. Previously, Nash was the executive director of the Madison Project, an industry-first secure digital music distribution trial, the CEO and founder of Inscape, an interactive entertainment and games publishing joint venture with WMG and HBO, and director of the Criterion Collection.

What’s his advice? As he told Sandoval, “Free didn’t work before. It was once used to drive engagement with ads. What we’re looking for now is for free to drive engagement with subscription services.”

In other words, forget about the drive-by grab of free music. That’s unsustainable and, even more importantly, unfair to the artists. Subscription services, on the other hand, can be about building a relationship between the product and the user, and between the artist and the audience.

The successful artist-to-audience services will maximize the sweet spot of all businesses and all arts: Discovery, Engagement, Content, and Context.

The best kind of online platform helps the consumer discover talent; engage with the talent and their community; easily access content; and, be able to dive deep into the context of an artist’s work and its connection to other work.

Don’t worry about losing something that’s been free. Be happy that there’s going to be something with more value. That should be music to everyone’s ears.

-Bill Reichblum

Photo by Jeffrey — Some Rights Reserved

It is not often that government bureaucrats make life better for artists, but this week the EU did just that. Right in the nick of time time to protect the Beatles’ first hit, Love Me Do, from 1962.

The EU directive not only extends copyright on sound recordings from 50 to 70 years, it also includes a substantial new fund for session musicians which is supported by record company revenues.

As the EU Council of Ministers wrote, “Performers generally start their careers young and the current term of protection of 50 years often does not protect their performances for their entire lifetime. Therefore, some performers face an income gap at the end of their lifetimes. They are also often not able to rely on their rights to prevent or restrict objectionable uses of their performances that may occur during their lifetimes.”

This kind of rights protection and demand by artists to be paid for the work they create continues to be opposed by the all-content-should-be-free academics, remixers, and global online content farms. See “If You Like Your Online Content, You Should Love Your Artists” for the most recent background. Or, you can buy Professor Lawrence Lessig’s Remix for the best understanding of the who-cares-who-created-it crowd. (Although do understand that you have to buy Prof. Lessig’s book as “no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book”. Go figure.)

So what do the artists and their management have to say about what the EU has done? U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness, called it “a great step forward for artists”. Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA said, “the thousands of lesser known musicians around Europe who are enriching our life and culture can get the fair reward in return for their work that they deserve.”

The change helps to protect artists from being ripped-off. Surely artists should be able to control their own work and prevent it from being used in commercials, political campaigns, or any other attempt for someone else’s profit. It’s only fair.

Artists shouldn’t have to produce work without being acknowledged, let alone compensated. No matter what hipster, academic, or business rep tries to argue otherwise, it’s hard to find any artist creating completely original work that has come out against these initiatives.

Still, the problem is far from resolved. As Helienne Lindvall wrote in The Guardian: “Yet when technocrats protest about European copyright extension, it’s worth pointing out that copyright, in effect, lasts for less than a day. As soon as a record is released, often before that even happens, it’s available on illegal downloading and streaming sites from which the hosts earn advertising money and, sometimes, subscription fees, while artists, producers, session players and songwriters earn nothing. Until the European parliament does something about copyright enforcement this new directive will mean little for the artists it aims to protect.”

In the meantime, isn’t it nice to have a reason to sing along to “Love Me Do.”

- Bill Reichblum