Can anyone tell me more about this?

It seems that it was an effort to perserve the jobs of live musicians. An exception was made
for records produced for use by our military, know as V-Discs.

quote:

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Petrillo's greatest enemy was recorded, or what he called "canned" music. He specifically objected to the lack of compensation for musicians who lost work as a consequence of recorded music's displacement of live musicians.

In 1942 (a year-and-a-half after he was elected President of the national union) Petrillo barred musicians from making recordings. For nearly two years (during the darkest days of World War II) the nation's recording industry remained halted. Petrillo imposed a second recording ban in 1948 that lasted nearly a year. Late in 1948 Petrillo finally reached a permanent accommodation with the recording industry, the jointly-administered Music Performance Trust Fund. The MPTF allocates a small portion of the proceeds from the sale of all recordings to a fund that, in turn, pays musicians who perform at free public concerts. Some $300-million worth of free concerts has been provided since the fund's inception.

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www.genejones.com

"Hail, Hail, the Gang's all Here" indeed.

I know they had problems with the Hammond Organ and "Chamberlin" way before drum machines came along.

His job was to run the AFM and to protect the jobs of musicians.

He knew that as soon as corporate radio was able to fire every musician that they had on staff and replace them with pieces of lacquer and vinyl that they would do it. Imagine a time when virtually all music heard on radio was done by a live player--MANY of them being guitarists and steel guitarist--keeping it close to home. That is what he was fighting to try to either stop or slow down as best he could. Stopping it was idealistic. Many stands by labor are. Slowing it--maybe. Ultimatly what he envisioned came true. Practically ALL musicians lost their employment in radio, replaced by "canned" music as he called it. The trade from the suits was increased scales and benefits to the players used to record.

Right up until the strike, record companies recorded around the clock almost so they could have a stash of material to use as they knew a strike was coming.

The AFM has always taken the side of musicians in the cases of technology that would replace them. The latest battle is the "Virtual Orchestra" which one day will replace nearly every pit player on shows if we just sit back and let it. Better to fight it and get something in return than just sit back and let technology totally put you out of business.

PS. Sorry about the horrible pun about "cases"

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Cheers!
Dave

[This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 24 September 2005 at 01:41 AM.]