Hello! Bettyjoe here! Wow, you can tell that this is definitely not one of my best-planned articles. But, it's a fun one!
I was listening to my music while trying to get on Whyville, as well as downloading a bit, and it gave me the greatest idea!!! Now, the places in Whyville are a bit dead (sorry, but you hafta admit it) when it comes to the music department... like in the disco for example. I'm not promising that anything will even happen, 'cause that's up to the great gals and guys at City Hall, but why don't we mail the Times some ideas of the kind of music we would like to hear? How can they change it if they don't know what we like, right?
Well, I happen to like country, rock, rap, hip hop, and everything under the sun, so I am not much help. Give Whyville a few suggestions of your types of songs and maybe they can find a select few that we can choose from, and some new ones can go to the Disco! I personally would like to hear some Linkin Park or Sum41... or Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (A bit old for some of you! Fishing in the dark??? Okay, nevermind! J/K!!! (It's a good song, but just forget it!) What about some rap? Well, let them know... I hear these complaints about the music, I do it too, so let's give a few NICE suggestions!!
See ya.
~bettyjoe~
Editor's Note: A good article, Bettyjoe, and right in time for the Prom! Citizens, we understand that the music we've had for past parties has not always thrilled you, or been very current music. The reason for this is, in order for us to have the legal rights to play you modern music, we have to pay licensing fees to ASCAP/BMI and the RIAA. (To learn more about these licenses, check out ASCAP's FAQ and the RIAA's FAQ.)
We've always felt that that money would go to better places -- like paying for the servers which keep Whyville going -- we've chosen to go with "open source", non-copyrighted music, like classical stuff for Halloween and the original music in the Disco.
The ASCAP yearly license is a minimum of \$264. The RIAA license depends on how many folks hear how many songs -- at a quick estimation, we think that'll cost a lot less. Thus, it would only take about fifty citizens volunteering to send in a little over five dollars each to make new music for a single event possible. If we wanted new music for the Disco, it would cost a lot more, because that's an ongoing, 24/7 performance, for which the RIAA would charge a whole lot more. But if it's worth it to you...
What do you folks think? We'd like to do this in time for the Prom, but frankly we'd be surprised if ASCAP and the RIAA could get all the paperwork done in time to make it legal. But perhaps, assuming that it's worth it to you, we might be able to throw a party mid-summer with some new tunes.
Times Editor
p.s. If you're wondering why we can't just use the money we get for Why-Passes, remember that Why-Passes are paying for the servers; believe me, we wish we had enough left over that we could afford things like music lisences!!
