What larry said.

FWIW, I'm not here because you're famous but because you're genuine, Arlo. Of all the people I admired and admire still, precisely two of my music heros stuck to their paths: you and Kate Bush.

You deserve this award and a few more. On the other hand, you don't get to quit.

I agree just keep on truckin'

Congratulations Arlo , thats good news

That Larry - - he sure is a good talker isn't he?! (and he writes silly stuff on the Story Board occasionally too)

Cheers adg!

(If a BMI affiliate is allowed to say so anyway)

Hey! Those goons owe me money!

That's nothing....ASCAP is hassling our Folk Club, even tho we meet in a restaurant that has already paid all the licensing fees so any kind of music can be played there!

Nah...and I have to analogize here to the Oscars because I don't know much about the awards of the music biz...those are "lifetime achievement" awards and what they really signify is that the PTB recognize that perhaps they haven't been paying enough attention and the recipient is getting up there...but I think you have to be at least 70 to get one of those and, really, what "they" think doesn't matter. I remember Laurence Olivier getting his and everybody talking about how he wasn't long for the world, but he was still around for quite a number of years after that. And Sophia Loren got hers in 1990 and hasn't gone anywhere.

Nice to see ya on here hon! You are nowhere near dead yet. So glad you got the award. Congrats!

Why thanks Ron. I don't know much about ASCAP, other than it sounds like Dick Cheney's hat. But I'll stand by my words based on my assumptions of ASCAP and the fact that Arlo accepted the award.

being 62 maybe helps me get what adg is saying...
but you can be near dead for a very,very long time...
so enjoy... you may never get all you've 'earned' but it's fun to get some......may it continue to show up....

@sue: They're known to do stuff like that. The collections people can be pure meanness. My band was playing a club where the manager met us one night and said goons were visiting to collect for BMI and ASCAP and said they'd ask the band to leave if not paid. He asked would we do that and we had to tell him, yep, they work for us. We saw our first BMI royalty check in over a decade a few months ago (slow but sure) and given the figures, we were better off siding with the club manager. I was explaining this to my son, Daniel. I like the idea of performance royalties or mechanicals for airplay but not in rooms that have live bands. It comes straight out of the pockets of those who can least afford it, IME.

Yep..and a lot of us perform our own stuff, so it's not like we're taking corn bread out of Britney Spears' pore lil' mouth. The restaurant owner has paid all the BMI and ASCAP fees so absolutely anything could be performed or played in the restaurant. I think they're real interested in double-dipping, and getting us to pay, too.

Good for you Arlo. Does that mean you can buy this Family House and turn it into a Rooming House/Hostel? It could really help some people getting out of a so called Hospital that I call a Slum.

(How I got out ok, after over 5 years of, Morons in Power, telling me I Imagined a short story I don't wannna go into here, must be because my version was the truth.)

They can't do that AFAIK, Sue. If the site licenses are paid, it's all covered. Performers don't pay fees to cover a song live. Only the site does that. For example, if you perform live on TV, the station pays a fee. That is why a lot of local programming cut down on live music, reality TV got big (no licensing nothing), and lots of restaurants dropped their folk singers.

IANAL, but that is what I understand. It is one of the fights we've been fighting elsewhere with regards to intellectual property laws, copyrights, file sharing, etc. There are some very deep pockets out there that do not intend to give up their rent seeking behaviors. It's tough. From one perspective, middle people and industry parasites have taken over the musicBusiness; on the other, royalty streams are cut from artists right about the time they really need it, particularly the writers that don't perform. The fees are all over the place and knowing how to collect from who, when and what is a profession all to itself. On one hand, without the collection goons that come with ASCAP and BMI, no author would ever see a dime in royalties. On the other hand, I sympathize with Arlo's remarks in several places about making sure the kids know The Business.

For example, why one should avoid that big advance a label offers if you can: recoupment. It all sounds fine until you realize just how badly they manage *small* sums. In case you're interested, here are some URLs worth reading:

http://gizmodo.com/5417318/my-6247-royalty-statement-how-major-labels-cook-the-books-with-digital-downloads How Major Labels Cook The Books

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html The Problem With Music

It's a messed up world. The Guthrie's are smart to own their own label but without a major star such as Arlo to brand it, it could be a heartless and slightly helpless affair.

When I was in cover bands - we eventually did some original material - we never even considered the performance rights end of things. We weren't playing bars and stuff early on - just high school dances and the like. Technically we probably should have paid some of our earnings for those rights. The mid 60s would have been a nightmare for BMI and ASCAP on collecting as there were so many garage bands playing all over the place mostly outside of bars and such.

You're right Len - the music "business" isn't such a good business for the artists. When CDs came out there were clauses in everyone's contracts that basically said the artist would forgo mechanicals on CDs as the new format - being untested - was not sure to sell. Another way for the record companies to take a bit more for themselves.

Thank goodness for folks like Steve Miller who opened the way for other artists to get better deals in that area. He was the first - if I'm remembering right - to get $1 per album royalty wise negotiated into his contract with Capitol. Gracious, the Beatles were only earning 3- 6 cents a album sold on all those first albums.

Hopefully artists will get this new landscape figured out and start earning a better living from their music. It'll be harder as many have come to view music as free forgetting that the artist has to eat, buy clothes and live somewhere. There's the huge misconception that "rock stars" have tons of money. Unfortunately that is not the case except for the few most famous artists. And then you have folks like Michael Jackson who was many dollars in debt despite his talent and abilities.