MySpace a place for friends

Mike has dedicated the past twenty years to expanding the role of the bass and educating a legion of bassists to the possibilities that lie within themselves and their instrument. As a product specialist forZon Guitars, Euphonic Audio and Thomastik-Infeld strings, Mike has been given the opportunity to combine the two things he loves most, playing and teaching bass. Brian Ostro of London, England states, I find your music incredibly inspiring. Your rendition of "Autumn Leaves" is an amazingly beautiful piece, which gives me many joys. Your looping work has changed the way I see the instrument! Thank you for doing what you do! Mike pens a video lesson entitled Bass Alone for Bassics Magazine and hosts a "pros" forum at www.bassnutz.com. Mike has been featured in Bass Player Magazine, Bassics Magazine, Global Bass Magazine as well on internet sites such as Talkbass, Bassnutz and The International Institute of Bass. He has conducted workshops, master classes and performances from Los Angeles to Istanbul and has been featured at some of the most prestigious bass events such as The Anaheim Bass Bash, BassQuake 2003, The Detroit Bass Festival, The Bass Collective and more.

Joe Pass inspired chord melodies seamlessly integrated with spontaneous loops create lush arrangements of everything from Jazz standards to R&B and pop classics to Mikes original ethereal, melodic jazz. His sense of melody and soloing has been compared to everyone from Kenny Burrell to Pat Metheny and his innovation on the bass has been mentioned in the same breath as the legends, Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke and Victor Wooten. His CD Big Droppins fills the void left by the loss of Jaco Pastorius says the John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize winner, Pat Humphries. David Winstead says, Your playing continues to amaze everyone.

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Royalties or, more likely, NOT!

My Letter to ASCAP:

Dear Marilyn and John,

As a member of ASCAP, I thought that you might be interested in my recent dealings the organization and with my overall dissatisfaction with the way in which you protect and secure my rights as a composer and performer. I hope that you take the time to read this and consider its impact. Although I doubt that you will respond, I will give you my contact information, later in the email, in the hopes that you actually care about the rank and file membership as you stated when you “invited” me to sign up.

This past summer, a very small coffee house that I perform in (and donate the proceeds to charity) was very upset as they stated they were being “harassed” by ASCAP. An ASCAP representative was calling them 2 to 3 times per week looking for membership and “threatening” legal action. Please note that I am using quotations to accurately reflect the terms used by the owner and manager of the coffee house.

It got me to thinking that of all my performances (150+ per year in the past), limited radio play and performances, and internet downloads (i.e. myspace, etc) I have never seen a dime from ASCAP. Wondering were all the money from these smaller venues was going and why I was not receiving my RIGHTFULLY earned share, I called. As you can probably guess, no one had a real answer … but there were a few interesting things that I learned:

1) For live performances – ONLY the top 50 touring acts are surveyed
2) For Radio – only the major radio stations are being surveyed
3) Foy myspace, a minimum of 350,000 plays must be registered before the artist sees their RIGHTFULLY earned royalties

I further found out that I can APPLY for my money, but once per year and with a January deadline. I was also told by one of your reps, in the Nashville office, that I was “the only artist to ever to try and protect a club owner”. This is not the case. I am ABSOLUTELY trying to protect MY rights and receive the royalties that are absolutely afforded me under the laws of the US and the membership agreement that I signed with you. ASCAP’s difficulty and/or inability to survey and record plays and performances are irrelevant to these rights.

My conclusions are as follows:
1) ASCAP’s inability to secure and protect the rights and royalties of the smaller, independent artist and…
2) The fervor to collect from venues that are very small and insignificant on a nationwide basis

Means that ASCAP and the higher profile artists are reaping the financial benefits on the backs of the very many independent artists and small performance venues.

I appreciate your time and look forward to your response.