What's happening to Live Music in Stamford

It's a work of passion - most musicians and venues are not in it for the money. -In fact, we've always been proud to be broke and know deep down that the soul grows when it is starving and struggling. Best music has been written, performed and produced under the worst conditions.

So why are so many venues around Stamford closing their doors despite having educated people, city life and amazing talent, right here in the neighborhood?

There are always a couple dark forces out there such as growing expenses of operating a venue, taxes go up as do advertising and promotional expenses. People also come and go - incompetent sound guys, misunderstandings with food vendors and sometimes performers, that's what we call: "Rock and Roll" around here.

But there is a new force which will quickly make a venue close up and that's the changing legal system. Corporations who "protect" the rights of songwriters and performers have found a way to after Bars, Restaurants, Night Clubs and Performance venues to forcefully collect thousands of dollars in membership fees and threaten to sue for playing live music. The money collected never ends up going to the artists and only feeds corporate greed. There are several of these organizations popping up and being a member of one does not exclude a venue from being sued by another. If it wasn't hard enough already, most venues barely make enough to pay the bands. Paying off the corporate mafia to improve quality of life in our town can't work. End result? we lost three venues in Stamford alone last year, including the FEZ, Amadeus Performance Space was forced to stop open mic nights

So welcome all to the era of music prohibition. You will only be able to get great live music in a private club. These exclusive music clubs and listening rooms are popping up all over the country, mostly on the West Coast and memberships cost many thousands per year. From my angle, the intention seems to be pointing into one direction: we will eventually be punished for playing or listening to music except if we buy the virtual experience from one of the corporations who leased the rights from the artist. It is a red flag to me when people try to control music and speech. If you hear a song and want to play it, that should be your right. If you are really great at music and decide to earn or subsidize a living that way, it should be your right.