[LAU] ASCAP Assails Free-Culture, Digital-Rights Groups

[Paul Davis]

On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 10:09 AM, Joep L. Blom <jlblom at neuroweave.nl> wrote:
> As a european musician I agree with you that music, classical especially but
> also jazz and folk and many other types of music and art (dance, stage, etc)
> are subsidised but there is a reason. We have a different view,
> governmentally, on culture. I don't think - but I'm ignorant in this aspect
> - that the US government ( or state government) give money for cultural
> aspects. Here ( in the Netherlands) we have a Ministry of Culture so
> politicians determine what is culture (music, art, dance, etc.) (even worse
> civil servants are responsible for the implementation) and squander money as
> they deem fit and in our country everything is done by "committees" who get
> subsidised and who not. So if you are not a favourite of (someone in) the
> committee than you're out of luck. In short, it is an in crowd method of
> dispersing favours (like the former kings did) only loosely related to
> quality.

Yes, this has been my impression too. However, I think its necessary
to contrast this with the US situation, which does feature a
substantially reduced level of this type of support (via the NEA etc).
The result of this low level of "community" funding is that the
opportunity for audiences to even come into contact with
non-commercial art is more limited (*). Since the other opportunities
are all reliant on audiences for funding, the net result is still
pretty cruel overall for art outside the commercial mainstream.
Another ancedote: all the jazz musicians I know around Philadelphia
report that they feel much better respected and cared for when they
play outside the US than within it.

--p

(*) I was frankly amazed at the number of performances of music I
consider basically dead that I would see advertised every week in the
U- and S-Bahn stations in Berlin. The idea that there were still
audiences for the sort of music that consumed the body and most of the
soul of "classical" music in the middle half of the 20th century was
just astounding to me, coming from a US-centric viewpoint. Berlin is
bigger than Philadelphia, and is buzzing with an incredibly vibrant
art scene, but still - I doubt if you could find more than 1 or maybe
2 performances per week of contemporary "classical/art/serious" (pick
your favorite un-label) composition here in Phila. Some weeks,
probably none at all. And almost never will any of them happen in
Phila.'s big concert halls. I wonder how many of the young art crowd
now filling apartments all over Berlin are really into that stuff
anyway?