A few months ago, I got an email from the music library that represents nine of my songs. It said that my song, "Kahala Beach" was going to be in the new Disney Movie, "Lilo And Stitch". This is, of course, the new one released in May of 2025. There are two payments to the actual creators of music used in a film. One is the User Fee, which is paid by the production company, in this case, Disney, and the other is the royalties - paid by the theaters. Similar to music on radio, which includes mechanical licenses, and royalties. Mechanical licenses paid for by the record label for the use of the song for their artist or band to record, and of course, royalties, paid by the radio stations. So, I received my first royalty payment for the use of my song today. I understand there are around 40,000 theaters in the US. For the first month, a major movie such as Lilo and Stitch, are in 3 or 4 of the 12 to 15 theaters in each of the cinema complexes. Normally, that would add up to a significant dollar amount. Well, my payment was all of ten dollars and some change - TEN DOLLARS AND SOME CHANGE. I can safely say, based on my 45 years of being in this horrible business, that this is the doing of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). They are nothing more than a bunch of dirty lawyers whose main function is to lobby Congress to make more laws to take money away from the people who create music - writers, artists, musicians, so that the corporations - the major record labels, mainstream radio, and such, get more of the money for themselves. This is known as "Corruption", which at one time was against the law, but here we are. And this is only one aspect of the massive corruption that has infested the music business - as if it weren't bad enough as it was.
Well, needless to say, I'm beyond devastated. I was sure this was finally my escape from all the horrible people I am forced to deal with all day, every day where playing music is concerned. I'm talking about jealous musicians, restaurant/bar owners and management, booking agents, entertainment directors, major record labels, and mainstream radio personnel. These people are vicious beyond belief. I have been on the receiving end of these people's horrible behavior and tactics for the entire 45 years of being in this business. Just a side, I've had my YouTube channel up for around 20 years, there are around a hundred music videos there. I played all the instruments - real instruments, not computer generated, MIDI, or any such thing - ALL REAL INSTRUMENTS. I engineer all of my recordings in my little studio, I arrange, produce, and do all the vocals - again, no electronic devices. I'd say the music in those videos are decent, maybe better than decent. Not only do I have to sing in an acceptable way, and not only do I play all the lead instruments, but I play ALL the instruments. At the risk of sounding like a fathead, I don't know of many people, if any, who can do that, and make the music sound like music. I have yet to hear a single person acknowledge the fact that I play all those instruments, much less mention the competency of the playing. The funny thing is, if you Google me, you will not find any of my videos, or my YouTube channel. If you go to YouTube and do a keyword search, you will not find any of my videos. Through Google, you might find my Facebook page, my website, and a couple of insignificant articles where I was featured and interviewed by a couple of obscure publications. The only way you can find me is if you type in my full name, proper spelling, and the title of one of my videos, proper spelling. Keyword search - forget it, never happen.
While on the subject of corruption, here's more. When I first heard about Pandora, maybe ten years ago (as far as I know, Pandora was the first streaming site), they informed me that there was a strict quality control system, and that my music, should it be accepted (which all of them were) would be included in playlists of major music that my music was simliar (By algorithms) to. Well, at some point, the Majors took over, so now, when you get a playlist, the only music you will hear is from major artists and bands - absolutely NOTHING from any independent artists.
So, at this point, I'm out of avenues. There is nothing more I can explore, no more towns to go to that would be any different from where I am now. Meaning, many of the venues that had live music a year ago have now quit hiring live music. Part of it is the horrid economy - with people paying insane money for rent, food, and gas - no money to go out for a meal and a few drinks. That's not to mention the insane prices of food and drinks in any and all restaurants and bars. The second part to the decimating of live music - shitty bands. These people will have a line of shit ten miles long - they're gonna fill the place, they've been playing in the area for a hundred years and have a monster following, they have top musicians who have worked with every famous musician in the history of music. Not a single one of these bands has delivered a damn thing - other than running people out of the place with their volume and horrible music. A manager in one of the venues here told me that in those exact words - that the bands are so bad that nobody pays attention to them, and they often times run our customers out of here. This was a big venue - several rooms - restaurant, meeting rooms, arcade, and a huge room where the live music was, with lots of tables where the people would bring in their pizzas and eat while they listened to the live music. Gone. The venue is still there, but no live music.
So, I guess now I'll get into the more personal part of this. I've never been comfortable being in this life, I always thought I ended up here by some big accident. I firmly believe that whoever or whatever created this life was/is a sadistic psychopath. I've never been able to deal well with all the mean spiritedness, the lying, the cheating, the bullying, the exploiting, the rude behavior; and I'm talking since I was a little kid. It's fairly recently started taking its toll on me physically. I'm 70 years old, been in the business for 45 years. I've done everything humanly possible to do something other than playing in dance halls, and restaurant/bars, only to be brick walled at every turn. It's apparent that my life is almost over, and believe me, I'm more than glad to leave here. In fact, I've said for a while now, that if or when my quality of life doesn't meet with my approval, I'm out, I will check out and not bat an eye. That stands, and if things don't change for the better, don't look up very soon, I will be heading out of here. Not because of depression, or being sad, I just don't want to be in a place where I've never been welcome (not by one single person in my entire life), and where no matter what I do, I get brick walled. I've had it, and not going to put up with it for much longer.
So, that's my story for today.
In case you may be the least bit interested in what I do, here is my YouTube Channel: Lee Jones YouTube Channel
HA, what am I thinking? Nobody has paid any attention, nobody has ackowledged, a single thing I've posted on Facebook, so I'm sure people are going to first of all, read anything I put up here, much less acknowledge any of it.
All for now.
#MusicBusiness #LiloAndStitch #MusicVideo #Corruption #LeeJones #TheFid #Ukulele
