Follow this logic: Mozart made appallingly little money on his music during his short life, and were he still alive today, his royalties would doubtless amount to billions a year. Meanwhile, musical ensembles today have a financial incentive to play dead composers rather than living ones, because they don’t have to pay the dead ones royalties. I’ve always thought we should reverse that: that some ASCAP- or BMI-like organization should collect royalties on music by dead composers, which could then be distributed among the living ones, on the well-established theory that classical composers (at least the good ones) get a lot more performances after they’re dead than while they’re living. You’d need sort of an old-fashioned guild system that composers would have to be inducted into to qualify for the benefits - which ASCAP and BMI already are, to some extent that could be feasibly extended. Today’s composers could be living off of Wagner's and Stravinsky’s divided royalties, and the next generation of composers could live off of our music.
I don't particularly agree with Kyle on this one (although I wouldn't be opposed to taking a cut of the royalities from Mozart — the film score revenues alone could support me quite well, thank you), but it is an interesting idea.
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