{"id":32201,"date":"2018-01-03T16:13:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T16:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=32201"},"modified":"2018-01-15T10:53:47","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T10:53:47","slug":"i-have-a-dream-owen-paul-guest-writes-for-essentially-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2018\/01\/i-have-a-dream-owen-paul-guest-writes-for-essentially-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Have A Dream’ – Owen Paul Guest Writes For Essentially Pop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Owen
Owen Paul (British Electric Foundation) poses for the cameras at Rewind Scotland Scone Palace on Sunday July 23rd 2017. Photo credit Martin Bone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best known for his 1986 number 3 hit, \u2018My Favourite Waste Of Time\u2019, which he co-wrote, Scottish singer Owen Paul released \u2018The One\u2019, in January 2014, his first official single in the UK since 1987, and followed it with his album, \u2018About Time II\u2019 in the autumn that year. He continues to perform extensively, both as a solo artist and with his full band Live 80s show, and as lead vocalist for XSM (Ex Simple Mind)<\/a>. He played all three Rewind Festivals last year as part of the British Electric Foundation<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Owen\u2019s latest single, \u2018Amazing\u2019, released in November 2017 is a remix by Stonebridge<\/a>, and spent three weeks in the Music Week Club Charts.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Owen is our guest writer today.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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As someone famously and historically said\u2026 \u201cI have a dream\u201d\u2026\u2026.and in MY dream (much that it is a socialist ideal in the mainly conservative world that we now reside in) all writers, musicians, performers and producers down tools and instruments and immediately and collectively stop handing over their work to streaming companies such as Spotify, Deezer and more\u2026until they start paying a reasonable amount for such content.<\/p>\n

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The advent of streaming is a wonderful thing, particularly for the consumer and the streaming companies, however for the writers and artists being paid at 0.06 of a penny per stream, it is simply unsustainable. Regardless of how many streams.<\/p>\n

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The same is true for live music too\u2026if I see another bar\/venue advertising for acts for an \u201copen mic\u201d night I will scream. Often, not a single act will get paid despite them providing the venue with hours of entertainment and an audience to boot, and with the venue profiting at the bar. All singer\/performers should collectively and immediately refuse to play for a \u201cpint\u201d at best and leave the bookers and venues with the dilemma, they shouldn\u2019t have the dilemma resting on their, often very young shoulders.<\/p>\n

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Believe me, venues would start paying instantly rather than have a dead night but this will only work if we do this all at once. If one person agrees to perform for free just for the \u201cexperience\u201d then it will for sure never work.<\/p>\n

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Since when did a carpenter, builder or other service provider agree to a job for the experience?<\/p>\n

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Imagine asking a chef to cook and provide food for fifty people for \u201cexperience\u201d or for the promise of \u201cfuture paid work\u201d\u2026\u2026it would never happen, don\u2019t make me laugh.<\/p>\n

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Entertainment is a provided service too and often those two hours or so at showtime pay no regard to the endless hours of practice, never mind instrument costs and so on. If a venue is unhappy with the turnout of a paid act then that is fine, don\u2019t hire me again. But for musicians and singers to offer this service for free negates this argument.<\/p>\n

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It is no surprise to me that concert ticket prices have rocketed for many acts during the streaming revolution. Ticket revenue and merchandise sales are now the only way for acts to recoup enough money to go on tour or afford to make new recordings, videos and so on, so it has become a double edged sword for both the artists and the consumers alike. Major acts, such as Ed Sheeran, Adele, or Taylor Swift may make enough from downloads and merchandise etc to continue their careers, but many new or smaller acts most definitely cannot and this is a real problem that needs solving quickly. If a staff member at Spotify makes more per year than the average artist who created the content that they are using for hundreds of thousands of streams, then something is very very wrong. If Netflix want to use a movie on their service then for sure, they pay the movie creator enough so that in turn more movies can be made and the cycle continues and now, for me, the music streaming companies must be made to do the same, otherwise brand new content from new acts will just not materialise.<\/p>\n