To Be (or not to be) Free: Looking for the Role of LDS Music in the Digital Age
by Ron Simpson
Utah songwriter advocate and General Manager, Tantara Records
“So, Ron, are you any more ready to talk about whether we can put Tantara’s music on KZION, the new Internet radio station? And what about Jeff Fairbanks in Boise who has an LDS music Web site? Do we want to cooperate with him?”
Just back from a welcome trip overseas, I remembered why leaving the country had seemed so attractive in the first place. I laugh as I catch the worried look on Sarah’s face. She knows we’re in for a long conversation. No simple yes or no on this one. And she knows my basic position: music is not free. “If music becomes free,” she’s heard me say over and over, “just sitting there waiting to be downloaded at will, then where do we get the startup funds for our next CD?”
It’s true: Tantara receives no budget allocation from upstairs, or as the jargon in our business goes, “from corporate,” or in our case, from BYU. If our products don’t sell, then Tantara ceases to exist. That’s the first problem, and it’s pretty easy to understand.
So welcome home, and once again the Tantara office is wrestling with the question of music on the Internet, reviewing the pros and cons. If we set aside the question of free music, then isn’t it a no brainer? Of course we want as many people as possible to hear the work of our artists. Who in their right minds would want to hold it back, to restrict the flow? The Internet is a miracle of accessibility.
Wish it were that simple.
As operations manager for BYU’s Tantara Records, and the person responsible for our routine music licensing matters, Sarah knows the second dilemma is a matter of copyright. As the custodians of Tantara’s master recordings, we can speak–or grant permissions–for their use. But we do not legally represent the composers and the publishers, who are the owners of copyright in the underlying music. In other words, For every piece of music there are twin copyrights: both the master recording and the underlying music are protected by separate copyrights.
Coming to terms with the Internet is by no means an LDS problem. It’s being debated in music and legal offices from Hollywood to Hong Kong. US Senator Orrin Hatch, as you may have read, recently took testimony from the inventor of the controversial music database, Napster, just across the street from our Tantara office on the BYU campus, partly in order, I assume, to get the issue and its importance into the minds of BYU law students and their professors.
In spite of these deep concerns, we decide to assist KZION, grateful that they had at least requested our permission. We make a similar decision with respect to Jeff Fairbanks, whom I remember as a former student of songwriting. A capable and driven student songwriter at BYU, I recall how his mom flew out to Provo from Washington DC to hear Jeff in a songwriter showcase. Sarah tells me he now lives in Boise, and that Jeff’s music data base seems to be an avocation rather than any kind of a money-generating project for Jeff.
Soon it’s Saturday, and I’m working on a nice, feel-good article for my second submission to Meridian when I see the headline, bold and beckoning: “LDS music comes to the Web.” Written by Deseret News religion editor Carrie Moore, and positioned as the lead article on the “Religion / Ethics” page (Deseret News, Saturday Aug 4, 2001, p. E4), the article discusses both KZION, and Jeff Fairbanks. The article quotes John Hesch, founder of KZION.com as being grateful for “large donations [of CD’s] from Tantara Records, Deseret Book, and HeartRise Music…” So I’m a pioneer. A reluctant one. I remark that John Hesch seems to be a class act, acknowledging his sources like this.
And, on this Saturday, with yard and garage projects waiting for my attention, I can feel I will be starting over with the article, taking a chance that Meridian and its readers will be patient and will let me air out some of these interesting issues.
Should music be free? Even these LDS Internet entrepreneurs aren’t totally sure, and are willing to discuss making our music selections downloadable in their entirety or just in segments, or highlights.
Is there a place for the professional practitioner of LDS music? Jeff Fairbanks offers Carrie Moore some provocative insights. “I don’t do this full time,” he says. “I’ve got a day job.” And such a day job it is: Fairbanks is chief of medical physics at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Boise. The Web site is a hobby. He also mentions that he feels many LDS music makers do not make a living at their craft, and so welcome the dissemination of their music.
But I don’t have a day job that takes care of my financial obligations. I made an early commitment that I wanted music to be my primary attention, my career. As such, it has to pay its way. As I’ve sometimes explained it to classes or to fireside groups, I have this guiding principle, As a child of God, my division of the family business is music. I have committed to manage it responsibly.
While I certainly would not presume to speak for them, I would still dare suggest that my fellow Meridian music and arts commentators Steven Kapp Perry and Marvin Payne have made similar career decisions: both have sought a living from the arts while remaining grounded–centered–in LDS culture.
To be fair, Jeff Fairbanks seems to understand the diversity within his population of LDS music makers. Some, he says, mainly the up-and-coming, welcome unlimited downloads from his Web site, while others are better served if excerpts of their music are presented.
The concept of music and its patronage within our experience as Latter-day Saints will likely be a topic over which honest and thoughtful Saints will agree to disagree for years to come. For example, how have you worked out your personal spin on these scenarios:
1) In the concert hall, if the team who sets up the chairs are paid professionals, then should the artists who sit in the chairs and perform expect remuneration?
2) If those who build the walls are paid professionals, should the artists who create paintings to adorn those walls be paid?
As we left Japan a few weeks ago, this same debate was flourishing among the expatriate Saints there. Seems a high profile LDS pop artist who had previously lived in and had a recording artist contract in Japan was retained to return to Japan and give a series of concerts to the youth. Sort of an EFY concept, it seemed to me. In Tokyo, the members greeted the news with differing opinions.
“It’s like we’ve hired him,” said one, with distaste. “No, that’s what he does, that’s his expertise. He should be compensated, unless it’s a specific calling,” suggested another.
To be or not to be–free. And that is definitely the question.
2001 Meridian Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
