SOCAN and the Right to be Paid for Work
Through licences, SOCAN gives businesses that use music the freedom to use any music they want, legally and ethically.
Three key points come immediately to mind:
1. People deserve to get paid for their work.
2. The art and science of yoga has firm ethical and moral underpinnings. Stealing or taking unfair advantage of others for personal gain is antithetical to yoga’s ethical principles.
3. Artists should support one another in solidarity. We are all acting to make the world a better place.
Full disclosure - I am a musician and I love music. In yoga classes, however, music may be a distraction and can even become an unnecessary attachment. Old-school practitioners remember when there was no music in yoga classes and view the addition of music to the influence of the profit-driven fitness industry.
Most meditative traditions encourage focus on the breath or other sounds naturally present in the environment of the class. Recorded music is therefore an artificial addition. If a musician consciously volunteers to share their art with a class, (whether by performing live or intentionally donating their recorded work), that is meant as an act of beauty and a gift to be appreciated. It is completely different from having someone take their work from them without their knowledge and without offering compensation due, which would be indefensible both legally and ethically.
Three key points come immediately to mind:
1. People deserve to get paid for their work.
2. The art and science of yoga has firm ethical and moral underpinnings. Stealing or taking unfair advantage of others for personal gain is antithetical to yoga’s ethical principles.
3. Artists should support one another in solidarity. We are all acting to make the world a better place.
Full disclosure - I am a musician and I love music. In yoga classes, however, music may be a distraction and can even become an unnecessary attachment. Old-school practitioners remember when there was no music in yoga classes and view the addition of music to the influence of the profit-driven fitness industry.
Most meditative traditions encourage focus on the breath or other sounds naturally present in the environment of the class. Recorded music is therefore an artificial addition. If a musician consciously volunteers to share their art with a class, (whether by performing live or intentionally donating their recorded work), that is meant as an act of beauty and a gift to be appreciated. It is completely different from having someone take their work from them without their knowledge and without offering compensation due, which would be indefensible both legally and ethically.
Some music is in the public domain and is free to use but I feel we can be modeling right action to our students and rallying support of the arts in society, rather than attempting to find loopholes aimed solely at maximizing our own profits.
Once we are aware of a legal and moral issue, as representative yoga practitioners are we not mandated to right action? Let us stand with other artists to promote peace in the world and all the best that humanity is capable of bringing to the planet.
As Bruce Reid, Chair of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians says, "Every time we walk on stage holding our instruments, we are making a statement for peace." (International Musician, February 2015). Let's make sure that the voices of the CYA membership also speak for peace– and justice.
Shoshana Barak
CYA-RYT 300, Member Local 149, TMA
Once we are aware of a legal and moral issue, as representative yoga practitioners are we not mandated to right action? Let us stand with other artists to promote peace in the world and all the best that humanity is capable of bringing to the planet.
As Bruce Reid, Chair of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians says, "Every time we walk on stage holding our instruments, we are making a statement for peace." (International Musician, February 2015). Let's make sure that the voices of the CYA membership also speak for peace– and justice.
Shoshana Barak
CYA-RYT 300, Member Local 149, TMA