Hello! I would love to thank Adele for proving my point?

With the release of the single Hello, from 25,  Adele will make my point about the US  entertaining it's economy to death as we climb all each other to get this release in any form or fashion.
I would like to thank Adele for releasing a new record so that we can watch the trade imbalance…

Since this is not US Made Music and it comes in as an import.

 "Chairman of Adele's US record distributor, Columbia Records, also denied a "sneak attack" release after being directly asked whether or not Adele would follow in labelmate Beyoncé's surprise release technique. ^[24] "

Mean while the MusicCitiesConvention.com is gearing up for it's 1st US appearance and I'll bet more than one panel will talk about how great this release is without noting the irony that it's taking shekels from local US Made Music artists, bands, and groups.

Follow #musiccitiesdc for updates from the socials during the convention.  Click on the link (I would like to thank Adel, again nothing personal, it's just about culture and who's the US is supporting) to read my Medium post about how the USA is Entertaining our Economy to Death and the Majors Suck. 

Every major city in the USA has same problem the Halibutronization of culture

And, the theft of it's music to the world and enumeration for it. 

I wanted this to be the whole blog title; However, life is too short and most or my titles aren't normally. So what am I saying.   For one the Majors, each use the Import Export Bank IMEX to finance US Made Film, NPR News even made a point of it yesterday when covering President Obama's plea in front of Nike (irony) for more Exporting of US goods.

However what he didn't say nor has any news outlet even hinted at is that the same Majors don't use the Import Export Bank to finance US Made Music.

Think about it the biggest stars in the world, well most of them, are US Recording Artists. Don't use the IMEX bank nor are any of their release being tagged Made in the USA and exported out of it. Now when you here major country stars that sings about the their love of the USA how about asking them how come their releases aren't exported out of it?

We've Halliburtonized the Music of America.  I personally feel this is a real conspiracy; Since every day someone at the Department of State is going on about Cultural diplomacy and even crowing about the impact of Arts. When we don't even bother to export the one art form that we dominate --Music. Last year we exported -397 % in this trade category.

So what does this mean for our USMusicCities It means that the voice of the streets, the soul of the home, the lift in the heart is stuck there just like them.  Meanwhile the best artists, bands, groups are zipped up into the Majors and that city and it's culture will never get another dime from it and the US will lose yet another important exporter of American made Intellectual Property, which is another twist in President Obama's speech yesterday which was protested and I have to ask how come no one is calling out this Administration on it's role in undermining US Made Music?

The two artists that President is most widely know for hanging with don't export one single unit of pre-recorded music out of the USA.  I'd say if the better half of the two alone did that we'd have a trade surplus and our local Blu-Ray, Cassette, CD, DVD, manufacturing plants, not just vinyl operations would be working around the clock.

Here's where it comes home to roost, beside the loss of local economic co-development that Music industry is know for the voices from the people aren't getting out.  Think about it we've had a number of large civil movement in the last decade and not one protest song has made it into the stream of media.    There is a very simple reason.  Most of the protests are about large multi-national companies are taking over the world and guess what they did and likes frogs in pot we're boiling over and protest like the one in Ferguson and Baltimore will keep happening.

What's more American than the Copyright, it's the one thing what we can agree is in the Constitution for our Government to protect and for what it's worth last weeks sells 57% where physical and I dare say not one of these will be backed by the IMEX or Congress via the MUSIC ACT or this President to be exported out of America and fulfilling the need to lift out communities, in music case one song at a time.

Music increases US GDP and some still debating if it's a viable industry?

Gotta give a huge shout out to Glenn Peoples and  +Billboard for putting out this article about something that I've been saying for years.  Music has value. 

To me music has always been the why not the how.  Something along the lines being the medium.. well without the intent to communicate there is no need for a medium.  And! it now seems that the  U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) agrees with me on this and decided to give the US Gross Domestic Product a 3% boost and a HUGE win for those of us in the music world. 


Or in Glenn's words 

"TAKEAWAY: The music industry has always punched above it's weight in profile, but didn't always have the influence that matters. this GDP shift could help fix that disconnect. 

According to Bloomberg's Peter Coy   this rise of the Intangible economy is for real and a couple of quotes from his article got my attention: 

"The effect of the revision will be immediate. Measured GDP will get a one-time boost of about 2.7 percent when the government starts counting R&D and artistic creation as investments. (New Mexico and Maryland will get the biggest lifts.) The future growth rate will probably be fractionally higher, too. With R&D treated as an investment, measured economic growth from 1959 to 2007 would have been 3.39 percent annually instead of 3.32 percent, the BEA estimates." 

 "If all forms of intangible investment were officially recorded, they would exceed investment in bricks, mortar, and machines, according to estimates by economists Carol Corrado of the Conference Board and Charles Hulten of the University of Maryland."   Link 

The Rise of the Intangible Economy: U.S. GDP Counts R&D, Artistic Creation

It also seems that the Secretary Pritzker, from the Commerce Department is getting in on the act too by touring Music making facility and promoting USMADEMUSIC  on the Sec's blog.  which also points this fact out. 
"In fact, entertainment, literary and artistic originals contributed $74 billion to the U.S. economy last year, according to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis."








So will these new “intellectual property products.” ( which is a now how cost of new music and other artistic endeavors are to be categorized) bring in the investors that are seeking sustainable returns like the double digits one I' recently blogged about as well as those that want to be part of something more. IMHO music has always been more than most of us can put a handle on and this new way of our economist looking at it helps others start to see the more too.

Terrance and I Capital Hill~ Grammy On the Hill 2013

  

Canada declares a Musician Trade War.

So image my surprise as I skimming my Facebook Timeline and noticed this posting from the Independent Music Awards.

So it seems that Canada wants to put up economic hurdles for non Canadian musicians  here's the revenant information from @Calgaryherald

The regulations require that any venue with a primary business other than music but which also books bands or performers must now pay an application fee of $275 per musician and those travelling with the band (tour manager, sound person, guitar tech, etc.) when it applies for a Labour Market Opinion, or LMO, to allow those outside workers to perform and work in their establishment. That’s also in addition to an extra $150 for each approved musician and crew member’s work permit.

Prior to the changes, the fee was simply $150 per band member, maxing out at $450, and that was a one-time fee for them to simply enter the country, which allowed venue owners across Canada to share the nominal cost or book them separately at no extra charge 

exemptions, which, on a musical level, includes “musicians in a band performing several tour dates in Canada” and “musicians and buskers coming to Canada to perform in festivals,” with the one major caveat being that they “must not perform in bars and restaurants.

Let's be clear this is a direct shot aimed at Touring Musicians' that know playing in bars and clubs in Canada bring in fans and help to sell US MADE MUSIC in Canada.

So what once was a 1 time max expense of $450 bucks for each tour party is now $275/person/tour party so it don't take a math wiz to see that this is going to hurt particularly US based musicians since they share a border with Canada.

I hope the US Trade Ambassador  Michael Froman and those that represent US based musicians let alone members of Congress ( https://smallbusiness.house.gov/openmic/default.aspx ) take a look into this matter.  We as a nation are being bushwhacked, hallibutonized and out maneuvered in the area of music and I have to say from the President on down US MADE MUSIC is not a priority. And I look forward to be proven wrong since it seems that the US is not even showing up at the knife fight let alone bringing a knife -- if you know what I mean.

End part 1.