[HANASHIR:14893] Re: Cd's

[NBudin <NBudin...>]

Beth Hamon wrote: I am flattered when someone wants to introduce one of my 
songs at camp but they still ought to ASK me.

Ask you if they can play one of your songs? Do you ask every other songwriter 
whose work you use if you can play their songs? Do you contact Pete Seeger if 
you use "Turn, Turn, Turn" for a Tu B'shevat seder? Or Peter Yarrow to use 
"Light One Candle" at Chanukah? Do you think song leaders ought to call Peter 
when they use "Puff the Magic Dragon" at camp, or Joni Mitchell if they sing 
"Circle Game" (as I just did today at camp -- sing it, not call Joni)? What 
about 
the Klepper or Steinberg "Shalom Rav?"

I don't think you can reasonably expect people to call you and ask when they 
want to use one of your songs in a camp, service or performance situation. My 
feeling is that when you record and/or publish the music to a song, it's "out 
there," and you have very little control over it. It has a life of it's own -- 
if you're lucky. I WANT people playing and singing my songs. It's the best 
feeling for me as a songwriter, recording artist, and as somebody who wants to 
reach Jewish people and inspire them to do Jewish things when somebody tells me 
that they've used one of my songs at (insert one: a service, a wedding, a 
bar/bat mitzvah, camp, in concert). One of the song leaders on this list just 
emailed me and told me that one of my songs is the "camp hit" this summer. 
That's 
so cool.

I'm just an old folk musician at heart.

RECORDING, on the other hand, is an entirely different issue. While I 
generally give people my permission to record my songs and, in this market, 
don't 
worry too much about the compensation, as songwriters and recording artists who 
make a living (or part of a living) doing this, our songs are protected and 
copyrighted for a reason. One may not record another's work, especially for 
profit, without at least asking permission and, when appropriate, working out 
the 
legal arrangements for monetary compensation. And burning someone's CD, even to 
give to another person, is wrong. But that's probably another discussion.

My songs are my babies. I cling to them for a while, but then I push them out 
of the nest and let them fly. Some of them are still clinging to the 
branches. But some of them are soaring farther than I ever imagined.

Noah Budin