This morning I was perusing a magazine that had an interview with Harrison Ford. Some of the questions where a little different from the standard type of questions I usually see in an interview. That wasn’t what struck me nearly as much as the answers Harrison gave.
One question in particular was a comparison between Harrison and Stallone. His reply was great. Stallone understands himself, I understand myself – we both have different obligations. Brilliant. What a way to say I don’t give a hoot about Stallone. Another question, a little more common, dealt with money. Asking if it’s a shock to make $20+ million a paycheck for a film. His response was, it was a shock the first time, then I got over it. I dig that answer. He clearly understands that he’s a draw and is worth the paycheck.
That got my day off to fun start. Then came a little chat with one of the companies that endorse me and that they’re finally going to be getting me up on their website. Another good start. Then I make it to my computer and I have an e-mall from a new fan in Germany. So I head over to YouTube to see what is being said [seriously, I hardly ever log on to see what is being done there – I probably need to work it more]. In the column where they show ‘similar’ videos I see one for a tune called Live Like I’m Rich…
I don’t play it up a whole lot, but I was brought in to sing a retro-y type 80’s-ish rock song for a movie that starred Hillary Duff. The song in question is called Live Like I’m Rich. The movie in question is called Material Girls. While the movie was voted as being on of the worst movies of all time on IMDB, I did feel like I had fun doing it. Singing the song that is. What’s even more interesting is the residual effect that occurred when the movie released, then came out on DVD later. Each time I had a large influx of teen girls hitting up my myspace page asking about the song, or telling me how dreamy I looked, or asking if I was single, or how old I was. It’s a trip.
Then you wonder why girls are asking these types of questions. I’m not sure I ever had brilliant answers.
Anyway, as I was typing. I saw a link for a video on YouTube for Live Like I’m Rich. It had one of my promo shots as the pic of the video. There I am thinking, this is awesome. Only real fans would take a song and go hunt down photos and make a video to put up on YouTube. I’ve seen it done for other bands that I’m into. But I’ve never seen it done for anything I’ve ever recorded.
I’ve had friends tell me that there’s no way to control what happens once you’ve released something to the world. I’m finding that to be more true, day after day. Thus the idea where someone like Prince is hiring a company to go and hunt down unauthorized copies of his creations and images is seriously weird. I can understand wanting to control how your likeness is being used, but at some point it becomes to much work – doncha think?
Another friend who reads the blog IM’d me a while back expressing surprise at my take on DRM. I didn’t realize I had been coming off like some stodgy artist. I think DRM sucks. I understood/understand it. I also understand the schooling, and creativity I put into my creations. So I think it sucks even more when people think they don’t need to pay me for that creation they like so much. Telling me I’m great, or that I’m the best, or that I’m loved for the music unfortunately doesn’t pay my bills. I suppose the equal trade off if someone wants my music free, is that I’d want their service or job to reciprocate. Enough on that.
I’m actually flattered about the video for the song Live Like I’m Rich. No, it’s not a YouTube sensation. Here’s the link Live Like I’m Rich On YouTube. It’s funny because there are pictures of some band members that have played with me too – though they’re not the musicians on the recording being heard. Long live the fan. Live even longer the fan that pays for their tunes!