Debbie Hennessey: Blog

Giving me a blog is probably a bad idea ;-)
Well, well, well... my web hosting service has decided to give me a blog, something that one of us will probably come to regret.  ;-)  
I've actually wanted to do one of these for a while but it's usually been when I'm mad about some stupid thing in the world...so quite often lately...but I realized that that would just be adding to all the hype and negativity and I really hate hype! I don't want to be one more idiot going off about whatever.
So here's some rules..."more like guidelines, really"...to understanding my blog:
1. Sarcasm is my friend. It's bad I know but it is one of my favorite means of communication. However, I will try to keep it to a minimum...really.
2. I will try never to write an entry when I'm really ticked about something. That should help with rule one.
3. I'll try to keep it reasonably short...yeah, right!
4. I will try to entertain and educate. While I will write about various things, I think I will try and focus [...]

Here is a good article that will give you an overview of some of the accounting absurdities of the record industry.
 RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales

The sobering truth about how much it would take just to earn minimum wage by selling cds, digital downloads, etc. http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/  And that's IF you can collect. I have over 20,000 plays on MySpace and have never received a single penny.

The Copyright Alliance put out the notice that President Obama's Administration was asking for feedback in regards to intellectual property infringement. Here is the letter I sent.  -  dh

Dear Ms. Espinel, The Copyright Alliance has informed me of this welcome invitation from the Obama Administration to share my thoughts on my rights as a creator. I was very happy to hear that President Obama had created position such as yours. It is so important that all Americans understand the importance of our intellectual properties and that we protect our rights as creators. As an independent music creator I have seen the drastic changes that the lack of understanding and protection has taken on my particular industry. I’m sure you’ve heard plenty from the few remaining major record labels, the 3 performance rights agencies, etc. but let me give you a more personal take from an independent music creator. I have no major label affiliation, no managers, no handlers, and my performance [...]

Even my closest friends are always surprised to find out how the music biz works…excuse me, doesn’t work. Here’s something that has been going on since the first radio station played the first recorded song and it’s not cool. For over 80 years corporate radio has not paid one cent to artists when they play their song over the air - the same songs that attract millions of listeners and millions of advertising dollars to their stations. This is the only business that gets away with this. Can you think of any other business that doesn’t have to pay its suppliers for their product? Can you imagine grocery stores not paying farmers for their fruits and veggies or your favorite Target expecting to get all their various products at no cost?
Bill HR848 The Performance rights act was introduced in Congress in 2007 and just this week past the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill would finally close this loophole in the copyright law and ensure that AM and FM radio [...]