Frederick,
 
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a new review of the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees that govern how we license our respective repertories to the businesses that publicly perform your music.  These Consent Decrees were conceived in 1941 and are completely out of touch with the way music is listened to in today’s digital world. 
 
Now is our chance to make a change.  We are asking the government to modernize these antiquated decrees to create a fair and level playing field for all songwriters and composers. We feel that doing so would achieve more flexibility for our members, as well as promote competition and innovation in the music marketplace.


We need your help. As part of its review, the Department of Justice has requested comments from the public on these Consent Decrees. It is crucial that ASCAP members make their voices heard.  This is your chance to educate the DOJ on the struggles of today’s music creators and why change is needed to promote a healthy music marketplace that works for all stakeholders, including songwriters and composers.
 
​https://www.votervoice.net/ASCAPNYC/Petitions/1764/ConfirmResponse?user=dGR9jGbHJvrF1bnOPTHrQA&alreadySigned=True

Frederick Warner:

Thank you for signing onto our letter to the DOJ. Your voice as an ASCAP member matters and we will continue to work towards a brighter future for music creators. 
 
Here is the petition:

I am writing to you as a professional music creator and member of ASCAP regarding the ASCAP and BMI Consent Decrees. These antiquated decrees severely disadvantage the majority of America’s songwriters, composers and music publishers and make it impossible for us to earn fair value for our music in today’s music marketplace. 
 
Songwriters are the foundation of the music industry and create the words and melodies that become the songs people love. When our music is performed publicly, we depend on our performing rights organization so that we can earn a living wage. The work ASCAP does on our behalf is work we could never do on our own: negotiating and collecting license fees, tracking performances and distributing royalties from the businesses that use our music while giving us a full accounting of where and when our music is performed. 
 
ASCAP distributes nearly 90 cents of every dollar they collect as royalties to their members. Because they operate on a not-for-profit basis, the efficiencies of collective licensing through ASCAP and BMI are invaluable to music creators. It is critical to the vast majority of America’s songwriters to ensure the health and future of these performing rights organizations we depend upon.
 
Unfortunately, the antiquated Consent Decrees and a dramatic shift in the music industry have made that increasingly difficult to do. We believe that a free market will ultimately provide the best chance for music creators to receive compensation that reflects the true value of our work - a straightforward idea that guides most every other industry and should apply to music creators as well. 
 
ASCAP and BMI have put forward a proposal that recognizes the need for a smooth transition to a free market and provides a fair and flexible framework for music licensing that works for ALL stakeholders. We support their recommendations to the DOJ.
 
The businesses that depend upon our music, including massive tech and media conglomerates worth hundreds of billions of dollars, will ask you to preserve a system that allows them to undervalue our music. We are just asking for a fair and level playing field so that music creators have a more reasonable shot at making an honest living from our creative work.
 
By modernizing these Consent Decrees and preserving the benefits of collective licensing through ASCAP and BMI, you can give songwriters that shot at realizing the true free-market value of our work.  
 
Thank you for considering our views.
Frederick Warner,
​Composer member ASCAP
  

I now have a new website www.frederickwarnermusic.com that is a market for my cinematic classical music. A listener is able to hear short 30-second samples of each composition that is on the "Namaste" CD and the "Blue Almonds" CD. A listener may purchase each tune for $0.99 or each entire CD at the reduced price of $9.99.

As always, I thank You so much for your continued support which helps in so many ways to keep my music alive and these websites active.

To all my family, friends, fans and visitors, I wish y'all a great and Happy New Year.

The 20th of October came and went before I realized it was the 9th year that I've had this site up and running. I've had well over a half-million visitors stop by in that period of time with several million pages viewed. 

The Music Theory page is the busiest, but each and every page has held its' own.
​My sincere "Thanks" to each and every one who has made this website such fun.

To Our Valued Members,
 
The United States Senate today unanimously passed the Music Modernization Act, a comprehensive bill that aims to reform our outdated music licensing system and give music creators an opportunity to obtain compensation that more accurately reflects the value of music in a free market. ASCAP and our partners in the music industry have worked tirelessly for passage of this bill and this is a major victory for all songwriters, composers and music publishers.
 
We want to thank the thousands of you who joined together, raised your voices, wrote to your members of Congress and worked hard to help achieve this historic achievement.
 
Below are statements from ASCAP Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Matthews and from ASCAP President and Chairman of the Board Paul Williams, on today’s vote:
 
“Today’s unanimous passage of the Music Modernization Act in the Senate represents a Herculean industry-wide effort to promote and celebrate songwriters and ensure their right to a sustainable livelihood. We applaud Senators Hatch, Alexander, Grassley, Feinstein, Whitehouse, Coons and the entire Senate for recognizing the value music has in both society and our hearts.” – Elizabeth Matthews, ASCAP Chief Executive Officer
 
“American songwriters work tirelessly behind the scenes to create the music that fans all over the world enjoy. Today, we made history by joining together and working for Senate passage of the Music Modernization Act, bringing us one step closer to a music licensing framework that reflects how people listen to music today. We urge the House of Representatives to swiftly pass the Senate bill, so the President can sign it into law and music creators can begin to see the benefits of this critical reform.” – Paul Williams, ASCAP President and Chairman of the Board
Help spread the good news! Click here to retweet our MMA message on Twitter. 
​

Today is the day that I have launched an opportunity for banjo fans and enthusiasts that visit this website to take advantage of one heck of a deal. I've been working on an advanced book of banjo tunes for thirty some years including really professional printing of very highly detailed music and tablature including precise fingering for a number of tunes both original and in the Public Domain. It is now possible to listen to a computerized version of the tune and email me to order a PDF file of the tablature file that you'll be able to print or simply view on your computer desktop. The fee for each tune is set at $1.99.

To hear the tunes, follow this link: Banjo Book Volume One

​Simply email me at: adirondackcomposer@gmail.com and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can. 

Dear Members of the United States Congress:

Songwriters are egregiously underpaid because laws governing the music industry have not kept pace with technology. The Music Modernization Act of 2017 will change that. This bill is the most significant update to music copyright law in over a generation and represents an unprecedented agreement between the music and technology industries. We, as the songwriters most affected by 100-year-old policies that reduce our royalties, encourage Congress to pass this legislation as soon as possible.

The Music Modernization Act is a bipartisan effort that will greatly improve the way mechanical and performance royalties are calculated. Today, digital services like Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Amazon and Google often do not know who to pay and money is lost to lack of information and inefficiency. The Music Modernization Act will create an entity, funded by the digital music companies, that will properly pay mechanical royalties for interactive streaming. It also gives songwriters a better shot at getting higher royalty rates in the Copyright Royalty Board proceedings. Additionally, it reforms the system that determines performance royalty rates for ASCAP and BMI by allowing rate courts to review market evidence into the valuation of how songwriters are compensated as well as giving them improvements to the rate court process.

When passed, this bill will be the biggest achievement that music creators have seen in the Digital Age. Unfortunately, there are many hurdles to face before this bill becomes law, which is why we songwriters are coming together to make our voices – which are so often behind the music – heard.

This bill is supported by the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), the Songwriters of North America (SONA), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), the Church Music Publishers’ Association (CMPA), the Production Music Association (PMA), MusicAnswers, the Music Publishers Association (MPA), the Council of Music Creators (CMC), the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) and the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP). The bill is also supported by the Digital Music Association (DiMA) which represents Amazon, Apple, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube.

The next time you hear your favorite song, think of the struggling small business owner who wrote it, and remember that you can do something to help by supporting the Music Modernization Act.

Sincerely,

​Songwriters

I want to thank all of my friends and fans for their continued support, emails and friendship from such places as the United States, Egypt, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Denmark, The United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Canada, Mexico, France, Hong Kong, Singapore, Austria, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Switzerland, South Africa, India, Saigon, Malaysia, Spain, New Zealand, Ireland, Iceland, Islensku, Kuwait, Israel, Romania, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

​HAPPY NEW YEAR!