SOCAN has been doing that (to some degree) in Canada for decades.
If you have live entertainment in your club, they'll drop buy and make you pay a license fee.
It's not outrageously high.
To Kreskin's point, technology has indeed had an impact, both positive and negative on today's musician. I've done the single, duo, and trio thing with the backing tracks (and without) for years and while you can get a great sound, there's a visual aspect missing. People love to watch a drummer.
Plus, once you cross the line of adding tracks, people start to wonder what you're actually playing and what is recorded.
What has hurt the biz more than technology is the ease at which any weekend picker can get awesome sound at the push of a pedal, put a band together and go out and play for $50/man and undercut the pro musicians. Commoditization, so to speak.
I hang out with some "legendary" Canadian musicians (from the old days) and most of them only teach and record, and occasionally do a few shows when the price and venue are right. I stopped playing pro in 1982 and I can't imagine someone trying to make a living at playing clubs these days without a record deal.
Muz
If you have live entertainment in your club, they'll drop buy and make you pay a license fee.
It's not outrageously high.
To Kreskin's point, technology has indeed had an impact, both positive and negative on today's musician. I've done the single, duo, and trio thing with the backing tracks (and without) for years and while you can get a great sound, there's a visual aspect missing. People love to watch a drummer.
Plus, once you cross the line of adding tracks, people start to wonder what you're actually playing and what is recorded.
What has hurt the biz more than technology is the ease at which any weekend picker can get awesome sound at the push of a pedal, put a band together and go out and play for $50/man and undercut the pro musicians. Commoditization, so to speak.
I hang out with some "legendary" Canadian musicians (from the old days) and most of them only teach and record, and occasionally do a few shows when the price and venue are right. I stopped playing pro in 1982 and I can't imagine someone trying to make a living at playing clubs these days without a record deal.
Muz