Problem
"Play, gypsies, dance, gypsies, play while you may.
We're gypsies one and all I say,
And through our youth's May time, love's playtime
Hearts ever gay.
We only live for just one day
The will o'wisp of pleasure glides
All the future hides
Love the only law obeying
Youth, a gypsy, goes a straying"
---Emmerich Kalman (1908)
Poets have assumed that, absent any financial incentive, the nature of humans and free music is to burst into song.
Is that possible? Would there be music if people would just give it away? Does copyright protection mean that we are assured a supply of music? In your discussion, consider the following:
• ASCAP called a strike against radio stations right after World War II. The airwaves were filled with Stephen Foster.
• Many new bands are in fact giving away their music, as a way of getting the band concerts and, eventually a good label.