The Palaces and Properties Agency of Denmark & me...a true tale...

[Larry Pattis]

EDIT: I changed the title of this, just for fun...

In 2010 I was contacted by The Palaces and Properties Agency of Denmark...and they were completing the renovation on their Crownprince's residence...it was like a 6 million Euro project.

They said:

We are a government agency who maintain the state's castles and gardens for use by the royal family, government institutions and museums and for the pleasure of the general public.

We would like to use your song Homeland Suite with slide shows showing pictures from the Crownprince couples future residence in Frederik VIII's palace at Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen.

Frederik VIII’s Palace at Amalienborg Castle has been extensively refurbished and modernised in recent years and has just been opened to the public for three months before the Crownprince couple take residence in the palace.

I responded thusly:

I do have one question for you about my granting use/permission, and my
normal fees associated with the use of my music in this fashion. I was
hoping that your government agency would be authorized to offer some small
stipend amount, since this is an original creation which I have brought into
the world, and which seems very well suited for your use with the slide
show. As a music professional, I would normally receive fees in the
neighborhood of $600.00-$1,000.00 (U.S.$), for use in perpetuity of a piece
of my original music. Is some sort of stipend or compensation available, to
acknowledge the value of this music for your purposes, to compliment the
slide show which has been created?

I have a friend/fan in Copenhagen, and he has told me that my music has
already been in use on the Danish language portion of the website, and that
credit for my music was originally given to {musician's name deleted}. Now it appears
that a change recently occurred, and that my name is up on your website.
Thank you very much for contacting me, of course, and for making this
correction.

The response was pretty darned funny:

It is correct, that your music has been used for a while with the slide show.

We had two music options for the slide show. One was yours, the other was {musician's name deleted}.
The person who made the slide show made the final decision, but a misunderstanding ocurred and I believed, that it was {musician's name deleted} work that was chosen.

As soon as we found out about the mistake, we corrected the credits and I wrote to you for your consent.

I regret to inform you, that we are not able to pay in any way for the use of your music. If you choose to withdraw your consent to use your music, we will replace it. I hope that this will not be necessary as we are very happy with your beautiful work.

My response was less funny:

Ms. Norgaard,

Thank you for this explanation about the misunderstanding which occurred
regarding the authorship of the music in place on your website.

I am absolutely astonished that a Danish government agency, one which has
spent millions of Euros on refurbishing this palace in which the Crownprince
couple will reside, claims to not have the ability to compensate a musician
as a finishing touch on the presentation of this project for your website.

I am fairly certain that the engineers, architects, suppliers, and workmen
(and women) that were all a part of this renovation were all paid for their
work, for their time, and for their products & services...and yet you would
like to utilize *my* life's work for free.

When you, as an official government employee of the Palaces and Properties
Agency of Denmark, first contacted me, I felt certain that my granting
permission to use my music would then be followed by a legal agreement
(contract) specifying the rights (and limits) to use of my music, and with
some kind of appropriate compensation.

That a government agency would ask for free use of my work did not even
enter my mind, quite frankly.

There may be musicians out in the world who allow free use of their music in
this fashion.

I am not one of them.

We live in a world that seems to take music for granted, and many people
(especially in this digital age) seem to think that music is "free".

It is not.

I create, play, and record music. If people find value in it (as your
agency has), they should then treat my work with the same respect as the
work of any other professional in this world.

Again, I am astonished that you would seek out and select fine music to be
an aural compliment to the slideshow which was created, find great beauty in
the music, but did not plan to compensate the creator of this music!

If you would like to discuss a fee (and contract) for the use of my music, I
would be happy to do so. If not, then please remove my music from all
language versions your website. I do not authorize the Palaces and
Properties Agency of Denmark to use my work without appropriate compensation
and without an appropriate contract.

Sincerely,

This did not receive a response.

I wrote again:

Ms. Norgaard,

I sent the following email on 5/11/2010 and have not received any kind of
reply nor acknowledgment. I see that my music is still in use on the
Danish-language version of your website.

I am hoping that you are able to reconsider negotiating a contract and
payment for the use of my copyrighted music. If not, I really must insist
that the music is removed immediately, as I have not given permission for
free use of my music.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and all the very best,

I finally received this:

Dear Mr. Pattis

Your music and all references to it have now been removed from our website.

Best regards,

My final interaction was the following:

Thank you for this acknowledgment, Ms. Norgaard.

Should you ever wish to appropriately compensate me for my life's work, I
would be happy to have my music as a part of this project, or any other
project that your agency undertakes.

All the very best,

[EoE]

lol I just would have said one thing... my Attorney will be contacting you about your copyright infringement unless you want to settle out of court.

[RustNeverSleeps]

You make entirely reasonable and valid points, but neither their initial refusal nor the outcome of this saga surprises me.

Personally I would have been inclined to let them keep the music on the website, subject to them giving sufficiently clear credit to my work. Possibly a link to where my album could be purchased, or something. This on the presumptions that Denmark would be a relatively untapped market for me, and that the exposure of the (mainly Danish) listeners to my music would be more valuable to me than the principle of music being paid for. YMdidV!

[Larry Pattis]

Originally Posted by RustNeverSleeps

You make entirely reasonable and valid points, but neither their initial refusal nor the outcome of this saga surprises me.

Personally I would have been inclined to let them keep the music on the website, subject to them giving sufficiently clear credit to my work. Possibly a link to where my album could be purchased, or something. This on the presumptions that Denmark would be a relatively untapped market for me, and that the exposure of the (mainly Danish) listeners to my music would be more valuable to me than the principle of music being paid for. YMdidV!

I considered this, but fair is fair...and with all the millions of Euros spent on the work, they couldn't peel off a few hundred bucks for the starving (not really) musician...?

...and the other fellow, {musician's name deleted}, he decided to go for the publicity...he wouldn't consider working with me to put them into a spot where they would have to pay *one* of us, or start to look elsewhere...

[duluthdan]

Larry, good job. Your points were eloquent, fair, and gentle. The Danish government's unwillingness to pay even a token amount is rather astonishing.

[EoE]

with todays internet marketing exposer is cheap. the publicity they provide is not really worth it. as a matter of fact the real problem is over exposer .

[CoolerKing]

One time a neighbor paid me to stop playing.

[Larry Pattis]

Originally Posted by matthewpartrick

One time a neighbor paid me to stop playing.

Sorry, that doesn't count!

[M19]

It is amazing that lots of folks think musicians are just so happy to give their craft away. Oh, someone else will compensate you. Yeah, right.

Good for you, standing up for your principles.

Proud PURCHASER of music that I love, including 16 Larry Pattis tunes.

[CoolerKing]

Originally Posted by Larry Pattis

Sorry, that doesn't count!

Ask the neighbor, she felt it was money well spent.

[Psalad]

Though it's not the point of the thread, Larry's post reminds me of the McDonald's SXSW controversy right now.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-co...or-free-2015-3

What a strange world we live in.

I get that as musicians we enjoy our work and that there are people who would (and do) gladly work for free in music, but it is so tiresome when people expect you to work for nothing.

[drive-south]

My cousin wrote a song called "Kicking back (on the coast of Maine)". It's a great song and the Maine department of tourism has used it for promotional purposes, with his permission of course.

[slewis]

Originally Posted by matthewpartrick

One time a neighbor paid me to stop playing.

I'm hoping "perpetuity" wasn't part of the deal, Matthew.

[slewis]

Larry, right on, right on, right on, right on, RIGHT ON! Well done sir.

The cheapness of a flipping government is astonishing.

[slewis]

My original compositions have been heard by literally dozens of people on a number of phone-answering machines, some years back. You remember those, don't you???