Dear Alexis, Last week at our debate, I talked about the essential unfairness that my friend and colleague Levon Helm had to continue to tour at the age of 70 with throat cancer in order to pay his medical bills. On Thursday, Levon died and I am filled with unbelievable sadness. I am sad not just for Levons wife and daughter, but sad that you could be so condescending to offer to make right what the music industry did to the members of The Band. It wasnt the music industry that created Levons plight; it was people like you celebrating Pirate Bay and Kim Dotcom--bloodsuckers who made millions off the hard work of musicians and filmmakers. You were so proud during the debate to raise your hand as one of those who had downloaded free music and free movies. But its just your selfish decision that those tunes were free. It wasnt Levons decision. In fact, for many years after The Band stopped recording, Levon made a good living off of the record royalties of The Bands catalog. But no more. So what is your solution---charity. You want to give every great artist a virtual begging bowl with Kickstarter. But Levon never wanted the charity of the Reddit community or the Kickstarter community. He just wanted to earn an honest living off the great work of a lifetime. You are so clueless as to offer to get The Band back together for a charity concert, unaware that three of the five members are dead. Take your charity and shove it. Just let us get paid for our work and stop deciding that you can unilaterally make it free. Prof. Jonathan Taplin Author of Outlaw Blues: Adventures in the Counter-Culture Wars Director, Annenberg Innovation Lab University of Southern California
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 09:11:54 +0000
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