Blurred Lines.....

I haven't posted a blog about the industry in a while for one simple reason, there hasn't been anything new to report or talk about.

There has been something that I've been seeing on Facebook as well as hearing about in the news. Basically music being stolen,

Blurred Lines, this from Slate;

In a move unsurprising, perhaps, to anyone following the painful details of this unfortunate copyright trial, a jury today found Pharrell and Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” far too similar to the Marvin Gaye 1977 classic “Got to Give It Up.”

As the AP reports, the musicians have been ordered to pay Gaye’s estate $7.3 million, which puts a pretty large dent in the earnings they’ve collected from the tune—testified to be at around $5 million for each. 

Very interesting, also not the first time it's happened recently, from CNN;

 Tom Petty stands his ground: Young British pop sensation Sam Smith's 2014 tune "Stay With Me" has a riff in the chorus similar to that of the 1989 Tom Petty hit "I Won't Back Down." Reports say the two settled out of court, and the official credits now list Petty as a co-writer of the Smith song. Petty says there are no hard feelings.

Pete Berwick has even had a song stolen that became a hit, I have no reason to not believe him;

 "THERE SHE GOES AGAIN" by Pete Berwick--1981: On the heels of the Grammy's BEST SONG OF THE YEAR, "Stay With Me," a song ripped off from Tom Petty, I was taken down memory lane, and the time I was leaving my record label's office in Nashville around 1992 and almost drove into a ditch when I heard "There She Goes " by a band called THE BOO RADLEYS on my car radio. There was no doubt in my mind it was my song, one I had written in 1981 and had recorded and performed with my punk band THE GENERICS, and I aborted litigation based on lack of funds and the fact that in my naive and non-business ways of my younger days I had failed to properly copyright the song. Several college radio stations had been playing it on regular rotation, and I had sent many copies to various record labels and publishing companies throughout California and England. "There She Goes" was recorded by two other bands besides The Boo Radleys, and some guy in a band called THE LA'S named Lee Mavers claimed to have written it. The song was a smash hit, and continues to be played today

So this is how low the mainstream music industry has sunk, they can't even come up with original music anymore so now they have to steal, oh I'm sorry I mean "borrow" from other songs? I'm sure this is not a new thing but at the same time one of the many facets of the industry that the general public doesn't even know is going on.

All I can say is that thank God the indies are out there and can still write original music. When will the mainstream figure out that this is what people want?

Guess that's a blurred line..............