Ahhhh yoga. For years now I have been attending yoga classes, being greeted by welcoming teachers, smiling faces, sometimes a wonderful light aroma of lavender essential oil and beautiful, peaceful music playing softly in the background.
Fast forward to just about a month ago, the day I received an email from SOCAN. Now imagine the sound of a loud scratching record that's sound brings everything to a halt. My heart sank, I felt like the playground bully had punched me in the gut… and killed my music.
The people at SOCAN wanted to take away my beautiful, peaceful background music. I quickly did an internet search on this organization and this is what their website states: “Without SOCAN, Canadian businesses would have to get permission from every composer, songwriter, lyricist and publisher of every musical work they intend to use”. Really? I thought musicians WANTED people to listen to their music.
Yes, according to SOCAN, musicians, composers and songwriters don’t want the public to hear their music. It's only to be listened to by the person who bought the music. Well my goodness, be sure to keep your car windows up this summer because the driver next to you might hear your music! How awful that would be!
Alright, so maybe I'm painting a grim picture here, but in essence what SOCAN is saying is that it's not enough to just purchase our music from cds, iTunes, etc. No, no no, we also have to pay this organization to PLAY the music. They are going after all yoga studios and we better pay up or we get slapped with a hefty fine. (Because, clearly, the best solution to save the music industry is to go after yoga studios.)
It's difficult enough to make a living from teaching yoga SOCAN. It's very discouraging to have an entity such as you wanting a piece of that small, hard earned profit. SOCAN is collecting fees from businesses who turn a profit by playing music in their establishments– like dance clubs or radio stations who make huge profits from selling advertising based on the music they are playing. Shouldn’t they leave our little yoga studios alone? Goodness, the background music is barely even recognizable and that’s when it’s being used. I have a feeling that musicians who compose the type of music used in most studios would LOVE that we are playing their music, because when music IS noticed, it's usually because someone wants to purchase it. Gee…wait a minute…. we are actually helping to sell music… maybe we should be the ones charging SOCAN to help advertise music. Huh.
Maryse Arseneau, ERYT-220, BBA
Owner & founder of Marché Yoga Market, inc.
Fast forward to just about a month ago, the day I received an email from SOCAN. Now imagine the sound of a loud scratching record that's sound brings everything to a halt. My heart sank, I felt like the playground bully had punched me in the gut… and killed my music.
The people at SOCAN wanted to take away my beautiful, peaceful background music. I quickly did an internet search on this organization and this is what their website states: “Without SOCAN, Canadian businesses would have to get permission from every composer, songwriter, lyricist and publisher of every musical work they intend to use”. Really? I thought musicians WANTED people to listen to their music.
Yes, according to SOCAN, musicians, composers and songwriters don’t want the public to hear their music. It's only to be listened to by the person who bought the music. Well my goodness, be sure to keep your car windows up this summer because the driver next to you might hear your music! How awful that would be!
Alright, so maybe I'm painting a grim picture here, but in essence what SOCAN is saying is that it's not enough to just purchase our music from cds, iTunes, etc. No, no no, we also have to pay this organization to PLAY the music. They are going after all yoga studios and we better pay up or we get slapped with a hefty fine. (Because, clearly, the best solution to save the music industry is to go after yoga studios.)
It's difficult enough to make a living from teaching yoga SOCAN. It's very discouraging to have an entity such as you wanting a piece of that small, hard earned profit. SOCAN is collecting fees from businesses who turn a profit by playing music in their establishments– like dance clubs or radio stations who make huge profits from selling advertising based on the music they are playing. Shouldn’t they leave our little yoga studios alone? Goodness, the background music is barely even recognizable and that’s when it’s being used. I have a feeling that musicians who compose the type of music used in most studios would LOVE that we are playing their music, because when music IS noticed, it's usually because someone wants to purchase it. Gee…wait a minute…. we are actually helping to sell music… maybe we should be the ones charging SOCAN to help advertise music. Huh.
Maryse Arseneau, ERYT-220, BBA
Owner & founder of Marché Yoga Market, inc.