I'm a songwriter and am NOT a member of the PRS. Doesn't stop those thieving bastards collecting royalties on my behalf that I don't want. It's impossible for me to play my OWN DAMN SONGS in public without the venue paying the PRS tax. It's impossible to opt out so I hope you haven't paid any kind of membership fee. You're also delusional if you think they are looking out for your interests. For the cost of your nice dinner, they've had numerous corporate lunches and a box at Stamford Bridge on the "administrative fees".
This is so true. I'm also a musician who enjoys writing and performing my own material. I have no real desire to become huge, I just enjoy what I do and hope that I give enjoyment to others. The problem is that the venues for me to play at my level are becoming fewer and fewer. The PRS effectively insists that all venues pay to join their organisation any live music is performed there. I know they deny this on their site, and that technically it is possible for venues to allow music by non-PRS members, but the guilty until proved innocent model makes it almost impossible for them to opt-out of the system.
The way they work is that if a pub puts on bands and the pub is not a member of the PRS, they have to prove that no cover versions of PRS artists were played. This means that a pub owner effectively has to know every song ever registered with a publishing company in order to police this and legally opt out of the system. They can, and will, be asked to provide set-lists in their defence. So what do they do, they stop putting on live music as its too much hassle. What's even worse is that say a band covers one of my songs, then the PRS will collect royalties on my behalf whether I want them to or not. You cannot opt out as a musician either (so those of you who blame greedy musicians for this situation as well, please think again)
Not only are the record companies killing recorded music, the PRS and their ilk are killing live music.
Per what I've heard, this is why young people can't get jobs in France anymore -- you can't be fired even if you don't bother to show up for work.
What you've heard is a crock of shit, most likely scare tactics by the US right wing. Probably the same people that said the UK's National Health Service was evil.
How do European companies handle it when people don't bother to do a good job?
They get fired just like everywhere else. However, there must be a very good reason for being fired and the company needs to prove negligence otherwise the employee has a right to take the company to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.
How do they handle it when there's a downturn and they can't afford to keep all the people they hired?
In this case your job is made redundant. This means you get a statutory amount of redundancy pay based on how many years you have worked at the company, plus you get at least a months notice. But, the company needs to do careful planning since the job now no longer exists, the company is not allowed to hire anyone in that position for a certain period of time. I think its a year here in the UK, but I'm not sure. The result is you don't get the firing and hiring that you get in the US and companies need to think longer term.
Or when there's a surge in demand and they need people to work longer hours?
If its a temporary surge in demand, then you get contractors in. If its a permanent surge in demand then you hire more people. Like I said, its illegal to ask someone to work more than 48 hours in a week. I remember once working for the UK wing of an American owned company when this situation happened. Our US colleagues had their vacation forcibly cancelled and were forced to work weekends. We were protected by our labour laws and so didn't have to put up with that shit.
Absolutely agree with this. As a European I would never work in the US for all of the reasons listed. I don't care what money I could earn. "At will" employment scares me especially since you can be fired without any good reason. Working hours are ludicrous which seems to stem from the "at will" factor - people are too scared not to work those extra hours for fear of being fired. In the EU it is illegal to work more than 48 hours a week without special dispensation. And the final straw is that you don't even get decent vacation time for all those hours, I get 5 weeks here and I know plenty of people who get more.
So long as the company is legit I say definitely go for it. When I left university I worked for (what was then, don't know now) the largest US focused online gambling company based out of Antigua - as an aside, they were also the first company in the world to take a bet online.
Not only has that job served be very well in my career - knowing how to write accredited, secure, efficient code - it has also given me a hell of a lot of stories to tell. Good times. I only ended up leaving because it was quite a nomadic existence as I was flying all over the world all the time and there comes to a point where enough is enough and you need to settle down a bit.
I'm currently working for one of the UKs largest high street retailers. It's most certainly a real company. And while it's not fluffy in the way you describe, it's definitely democratic in terms of the way it works. Everyone from junior staff up to the IT director works on the same floor and are on first name terms. Everyone has input into decisions. The length of the working day is strictly 7 hours only and it's frowned upon if you work longer. There are no code monkeys here.
I have high standards for myself and I would never accept any job that impinged upon those standards. Others have lower standards obviously and are happy to be code monkey wage slaves. Each to their own of course, but I know where I'd rather be.
You need to up your self-confidence a bit I suspect. A job should never be a one way street where you are dictated at what to do. It should be inclusive with ideas being bounced backwards and forwards between everyone in the team, including management. If you've never been in a job like that, it's likely that it's because you're too willing to accept the "pointless issues".
I don't need to sell myself for gold, and I believe the GP feels the same way.
In fact I feel the other way around. I'm the one with the gold. I have the skills and if the company wants my services then they get them on my terms.
I'll admit that at the start of my career I probably spent more time looking for a job than most, but I found that the jobs I did get were more "rounded" (i.e. not cubicle drudgery) and therefore that led me to be more rounded in terms of skills. I now firmly believe that I'm better off than I would have been had I not had this stance.
I'd resign if anyone tried to tell me what to wear in the real world, never mind the virtual. I've never worked at a company with a dress code and I never will. Not because I have an aversion to looking smart, but because that kind of control is normally just the tip of the iceberg.
My first XBox-360 had the RRoD after about 1.5 years of working. I rang up the Game store where I bought it from and the assistant said they only guaranteed them for 12 months. I asked to speak to the manager and he trotted out the same old garbage and it got quite heated. I told him I'd give him an hour to read up about the Sale Of Goods Act on the Internet and that he could ring me back, apologise, and give me a replacement X-Box or I'd see his shiny ass in small claims court. He rang back...
To be fair I was impressed with Ardour and I didn't mean to imply that it was the source of the problem. It was a whole combination of things ranging from hardware interface compatibility problems through to Jack not being stable enough. I also seemed to get a lot of buffer overrun problems even though the machine should have been powerful enough.
Yes you can buy purpose built hardware to make sure that everything works flawlessly just as I'm sure the people behind your success stories have done. The thing is that I also bought hardware that I knew would work flawlessly as well - I bought a Mac with Logic Studio.
It's kind of believable given that the artist in question here is making electronic music and there's no actual real audio input going on. Even working with one audio input is just about believable. But having tried linux audio with Ardour around a year ago, setting up something to multitrack record a full band just is not going to happen reliably with 16 simultaneous inputs required (2 guitar inputs, 1 bass, 1 vocals, 1 backing vocals, 11 for drums - kick in, kick out, snare top, snare bottom, 3 toms, hi-hat, 2 overheads, room mic).
Not to mention that only idiots try to build a "premium" laptop. Laptops are for when you're not at your desktop.
I disagree, just because you can't think of a need doesn't mean the need isn't there. I have a MacBook Pro that I use at the centre of my music studio. I also use it to record live events and run my guitar rig on stage. There's no way I'd take a desktop on stage. So does that make me an idiot for needing a premium laptop?
Go to any live music event nowadays and I can pretty much guarantee you'll see a MacBook Pro controlling something - either front of house or on stage.
In the 14th century most people would have held St Edmund as the patron saint of England. St George was more associated with the Knights Of The Garter and the monarchy. It wasn't really until the 16th century that St George had fully taken over the national role.
In the UK I have automatic copyright over everything and anything I write. I don't have to register anything, it doesn't matter if its public or private. There is no fair use law here so they couldn't use that excuse either. If anyone did this in the UK, they would have their asses sued off and they would lose. It's much more black and white here I think. And a good thing that is too from the looks of things.
Slashdot Mirror
Two words - Logic Studio
(Don't mention Ardour either, because as good as it is, it's nowhere near Logic)
I know you're trolling, but you do realise that every single one your favourite bands started in small venues don't you?
I'm a songwriter and a member of a PRS.
I'm a songwriter and am NOT a member of the PRS. Doesn't stop those thieving bastards collecting royalties on my behalf that I don't want. It's impossible for me to play my OWN DAMN SONGS in public without the venue paying the PRS tax. It's impossible to opt out so I hope you haven't paid any kind of membership fee. You're also delusional if you think they are looking out for your interests. For the cost of your nice dinner, they've had numerous corporate lunches and a box at Stamford Bridge on the "administrative fees".
This is so true. I'm also a musician who enjoys writing and performing my own material. I have no real desire to become huge, I just enjoy what I do and hope that I give enjoyment to others. The problem is that the venues for me to play at my level are becoming fewer and fewer. The PRS effectively insists that all venues pay to join their organisation any live music is performed there. I know they deny this on their site, and that technically it is possible for venues to allow music by non-PRS members, but the guilty until proved innocent model makes it almost impossible for them to opt-out of the system.
The way they work is that if a pub puts on bands and the pub is not a member of the PRS, they have to prove that no cover versions of PRS artists were played. This means that a pub owner effectively has to know every song ever registered with a publishing company in order to police this and legally opt out of the system. They can, and will, be asked to provide set-lists in their defence. So what do they do, they stop putting on live music as its too much hassle. What's even worse is that say a band covers one of my songs, then the PRS will collect royalties on my behalf whether I want them to or not. You cannot opt out as a musician either (so those of you who blame greedy musicians for this situation as well, please think again)
Not only are the record companies killing recorded music, the PRS and their ilk are killing live music.
Per what I've heard, this is why young people can't get jobs in France anymore -- you can't be fired even if you don't bother to show up for work.
What you've heard is a crock of shit, most likely scare tactics by the US right wing. Probably the same people that said the UK's National Health Service was evil.
How do European companies handle it when people don't bother to do a good job?
They get fired just like everywhere else. However, there must be a very good reason for being fired and the company needs to prove negligence otherwise the employee has a right to take the company to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.
How do they handle it when there's a downturn and they can't afford to keep all the people they hired?
In this case your job is made redundant. This means you get a statutory amount of redundancy pay based on how many years you have worked at the company, plus you get at least a months notice. But, the company needs to do careful planning since the job now no longer exists, the company is not allowed to hire anyone in that position for a certain period of time. I think its a year here in the UK, but I'm not sure. The result is you don't get the firing and hiring that you get in the US and companies need to think longer term.
Or when there's a surge in demand and they need people to work longer hours?
If its a temporary surge in demand, then you get contractors in. If its a permanent surge in demand then you hire more people. Like I said, its illegal to ask someone to work more than 48 hours in a week. I remember once working for the UK wing of an American owned company when this situation happened. Our US colleagues had their vacation forcibly cancelled and were forced to work weekends. We were protected by our labour laws and so didn't have to put up with that shit.
Absolutely agree with this. As a European I would never work in the US for all of the reasons listed. I don't care what money I could earn. "At will" employment scares me especially since you can be fired without any good reason. Working hours are ludicrous which seems to stem from the "at will" factor - people are too scared not to work those extra hours for fear of being fired. In the EU it is illegal to work more than 48 hours a week without special dispensation. And the final straw is that you don't even get decent vacation time for all those hours, I get 5 weeks here and I know plenty of people who get more.
So long as the company is legit I say definitely go for it. When I left university I worked for (what was then, don't know now) the largest US focused online gambling company based out of Antigua - as an aside, they were also the first company in the world to take a bet online.
Not only has that job served be very well in my career - knowing how to write accredited, secure, efficient code - it has also given me a hell of a lot of stories to tell. Good times. I only ended up leaving because it was quite a nomadic existence as I was flying all over the world all the time and there comes to a point where enough is enough and you need to settle down a bit.
I'm currently working for one of the UKs largest high street retailers. It's most certainly a real company. And while it's not fluffy in the way you describe, it's definitely democratic in terms of the way it works. Everyone from junior staff up to the IT director works on the same floor and are on first name terms. Everyone has input into decisions. The length of the working day is strictly 7 hours only and it's frowned upon if you work longer. There are no code monkeys here.
I have high standards for myself and I would never accept any job that impinged upon those standards. Others have lower standards obviously and are happy to be code monkey wage slaves. Each to their own of course, but I know where I'd rather be.
then wearing t-shirts and jeans will never get you into the executive suite. You will find that your income runs into a glass ceiling
I have no intention of going near the executive suite. And my income is more than enough for anyone. I don't need any more.
You need to up your self-confidence a bit I suspect. A job should never be a one way street where you are dictated at what to do. It should be inclusive with ideas being bounced backwards and forwards between everyone in the team, including management. If you've never been in a job like that, it's likely that it's because you're too willing to accept the "pointless issues".
I don't need to sell myself for gold, and I believe the GP feels the same way.
In fact I feel the other way around. I'm the one with the gold. I have the skills and if the company wants my services then they get them on my terms.
I'll admit that at the start of my career I probably spent more time looking for a job than most, but I found that the jobs I did get were more "rounded" (i.e. not cubicle drudgery) and therefore that led me to be more rounded in terms of skills. I now firmly believe that I'm better off than I would have been had I not had this stance.
I'd resign if anyone tried to tell me what to wear in the real world, never mind the virtual. I've never worked at a company with a dress code and I never will. Not because I have an aversion to looking smart, but because that kind of control is normally just the tip of the iceberg.
My first XBox-360 had the RRoD after about 1.5 years of working. I rang up the Game store where I bought it from and the assistant said they only guaranteed them for 12 months. I asked to speak to the manager and he trotted out the same old garbage and it got quite heated. I told him I'd give him an hour to read up about the Sale Of Goods Act on the Internet and that he could ring me back, apologise, and give me a replacement X-Box or I'd see his shiny ass in small claims court. He rang back...
There is, though, a big stupid bird with two flapping wings. A left wing and a right wing. It's name is politics.
The problem for you Americans is that your bird actually has both wings on the same side which is why it keeps flying in circles.
And you must have missed an awful lot of education if you think that Gordon Brown is anything to do with liberalism.
draconian gun control
Over here in the UK we don't care about whatever amendment allows you to carry guns. We don't want them and we don't need them.
To be fair I was impressed with Ardour and I didn't mean to imply that it was the source of the problem. It was a whole combination of things ranging from hardware interface compatibility problems through to Jack not being stable enough. I also seemed to get a lot of buffer overrun problems even though the machine should have been powerful enough.
Yes you can buy purpose built hardware to make sure that everything works flawlessly just as I'm sure the people behind your success stories have done. The thing is that I also bought hardware that I knew would work flawlessly as well - I bought a Mac with Logic Studio.
It's kind of believable given that the artist in question here is making electronic music and there's no actual real audio input going on. Even working with one audio input is just about believable. But having tried linux audio with Ardour around a year ago, setting up something to multitrack record a full band just is not going to happen reliably with 16 simultaneous inputs required (2 guitar inputs, 1 bass, 1 vocals, 1 backing vocals, 11 for drums - kick in, kick out, snare top, snare bottom, 3 toms, hi-hat, 2 overheads, room mic).
Oh that's easy. You tell them you are Lord Beelzebub - Master Of The Underworld and then roar really loudly at them.
Contrary to popular belief, there are no pesticide residues in plants. All produce is washed before being sold or used to manufacture food products.
And if the plant absorbs any pesticides through the roots and/or leaves then that just washes off does it?
Not to mention that only idiots try to build a "premium" laptop. Laptops are for when you're not at your desktop.
I disagree, just because you can't think of a need doesn't mean the need isn't there. I have a MacBook Pro that I use at the centre of my music studio. I also use it to record live events and run my guitar rig on stage. There's no way I'd take a desktop on stage. So does that make me an idiot for needing a premium laptop?
Go to any live music event nowadays and I can pretty much guarantee you'll see a MacBook Pro controlling something - either front of house or on stage.
I'm not a Brit
That's pretty obvious given your post. I'm a Brit and I haven't got a clue what you're on about.
In the 14th century most people would have held St Edmund as the patron saint of England. St George was more associated with the Knights Of The Garter and the monarchy. It wasn't really until the 16th century that St George had fully taken over the national role.
In the UK I have automatic copyright over everything and anything I write. I don't have to register anything, it doesn't matter if its public or private. There is no fair use law here so they couldn't use that excuse either. If anyone did this in the UK, they would have their asses sued off and they would lose. It's much more black and white here I think. And a good thing that is too from the looks of things.