Contrary to all commercial logic, I believe that artists should be the only ones who decide whether and when their music plays or not. For convenience you may want to license your stuff to a label who licenses it to a distributor who keeps licensing it to people you don’t like, but it chips away little pieces of your soul until you can’t look at yourself in the mirror. One way to protect yourself is to make sure you revoke and terminate all deals and licenses prior to elections, because in the current capitalist state of affairs, licensing things for profit doesn’t allow you to just take shit down when you feel like it. Still, I think that nothing is more important than the right to destroy what you create if you don’t consent to a licensee using it.
Takedowns are a stand against corporate slavery
Naturally I love the current heart-warming chaos of label-owned artists standing up to performance rights licenses and requesting takedowns, nothing could be more human and anti-corporate than that. In a way it is a revolution against the commerciality of music. We are brainwashed to think that commercializing stuff equates success. I couldn’t disagree more and I simply do not see money as something that equates value or remotely reflects the actual value of things.
Nothing matters more than your integrity in life, If you don’t want your music to play, do what you have to do. You may get sued to give back royalties you earned through compulsory licensing (and possibly the losses your label will incur due to your breach of contract) but you will be remembered like a hero for that breach. If someone opposed to your values plays your music, the first step is to say that you do not consent AND give back all profits, before anyone asks you. Then fire your label. Never miss an opportunity to express absence of consent loud and clear through words and conduct. Especially if you’re on the level of ABBA, you kind of have a moral responsibility to give an example to the world. Once you say you don’t consent, you need to let go of the royalties. Otherwise you push disinformation by contradicting your words while actually consenting to seemingly unacceptable things. I won’t judge people who remain silent, but I will totally cancel anyone who doesn’t walk their talk.
I am the last person who will stand in the way of total annihilation of capitalism (and its byproducts such as all dictatorships, fascism, communism, and similar slavery-based regimes). Here I see a great opportunity and momentum to begin questioning corporate control of music. Moment to moment consent should override all commercial licenses. Also, corporate interests should always come behind human beings feelings and sensitivities, such as the fundamental right to change your mind and void contractual obligations if a corp doesn’t act according to your values.
If laws cannot be adopted fast enough to amend copyright acts around the world and give artists total immunity against lawsuits, I’d be cool to limit music licensing through executive decrees and create a new expeditious takedown process with heavy daily penalties for corps who refuse to comply promptly with human requests.
