General LF Discussion

[Localonthe8s]

Vocals are back.

Well it was good while it lasted

[gt1racerlHDl]

Vocals are back.

i won't be surprised if the Full Screen Locals are gone in the Fall with "Local Weather All The Time" so i'll just let the Vocal era run it's course.

[TWCJim]

Vocals are back.

Bummer.

As Alex said, we might as well just wait until the fall when the LF revamps kick in 

[WeatherWitness]

Vocals are back.

i won't be surprised if the Full Screen Locals are gone in the Fall with "Local Weather All The Time" so i'll just let the Vocal era run it's course.

I'm confused, though, because just a little under two weeks ago you said you had a source from the LOT8s support team that said TWC's budget towards the locals music had "run dry," so the vocals and smooth jazz were gone for what seemed like the foreseeable future until this "revamp" was done in the fall.  So I am surprised that vocals would have returned so soon if money problems were indeed the case unless they just got some random spike in revenue recently.

[gt1racerlHDl]

I'm confused, though, because just a little under two weeks ago you said you had a source from the LOT8s support team that said TWC's budget towards the locals music had "run dry," so the vocals and smooth jazz were gone for what seemed like the foreseeable future until this "revamp" was done in the fall.  So I am surprised that vocals would have returned so soon if money problems were indeed the case unless they just got some random spike in revenue recently.

I agree Andy i'm confused too, the source said the exact things you just referred to. i just think the source lied just to stop viewers from contacting TWC Feedback regarding the current state of TWC.

[Metarvo]

It must be about priorities.  Evidently, having vocals on the LFs is enough of a priority that TWC had to do whatever they could to get them back on the air.  Did they borrow money? 

[toxictwister00]

Didn't someone not too long ago (I can't remember who) post about TWC having their credit downgraded. I think I recall within that small article mentioning how they as a company needed to borrow some money to pay off debts. I know the music department is an entirely different beast from what ever department(s) or whatever within the company that's responsible for the debt, but I would think if you're in debt and you're borrowing money, wouldn't a good cost effective initiative be to play in house production music instead of inquiring licenses to play mainstream musicians? I don't know how much licensing music for a company like TWC would cost, but I surely doubt it's cheap.

[WeatherWitness]

Didn't someone not too long ago (I can't remember who) post about TWC having their credit downgraded. I think I recall within that small article mentioning how they as a company needed to borrow some money to pay off debts. I know the music department is an entirely different beast from what ever department(s) or whatever within the company that's responsible for the debt, but I would think if you're in debt and you're borrowing money, wouldn't a good cost effective initiative be to play in house production music instead of inquiring licenses to play mainstream musicians? I don't know how much licensing music for a company like TWC would cost, but I surely doubt it's cheap.

Well, that's kind of what Alex and I were talking about earlier, Tavores.  See the posts above and this post.  Now I don't know about an article, but Alex said he received feedback from LOT8s support saying their budget on music had "run dry" so that's why they weren't playing smooth jazz or vocals anymore.  I guarantee acquiring the licenses for this popular music is not cheap, so seeing that his post was less than two weeks ago and vocals are somehow back, I think we are all confused at this point.

[Localonthe8s]

Maybe it was a miscommunication or misunderstanding?

[Metarvo]

They've been playing a lot of smooth jazz along with the vocals in the last year or two, haven't they?    It's too bad they only just recently stopped playing it this year.

[TWCJim]

I'm confused about the music issue as well    If TWC is airing vocal music again, wouldn't they have to acquire new licenses to air the songs again by paying the license holders again? 

[twcfan68]

No telling. As Tavores said, TWC has their own music--the Beach Street music, to be exact. Alex's source must have either been mistaken or TWC changed their mind soon after. In fact, I don't think I've heard a single instrumental since TWC switched back. Like the rest of you, I'd like to see them make up their mind and stick with it.

[gt1racerlHDl]

No telling. As Tavores said, TWC has their own music--the Beach Street music, to be exact. Alex's source must have either been mistaken or TWC changed their mind soon after. In fact, I don't think I've heard a single instrumental since TWC switched back. Like the rest of you, I'd like to see them make up their mind and stick with it.

I'll see if i get a reply from TWC Feedback about the change, or i might just get another lie again 

[IceManNYR]

They most certainly have to pay fees to ASCAP for playing of the music used on the LOT8's. It's usually covered by a rights usage contract.

Blanket License
"Blanket license" is a license which allows the music user to perform any or all of over 8.5 million songs in the ASCAP repertory as much or as little as they like. Licensees pay an annual fee for the license. The blanket license saves music users the paperwork, trouble and expense of finding and negotiating licenses with all of the copyright owners of the works that might be used during a year and helps prevent the user from even inadvertently infringing on the copyrights of ASCAP's members and the many foreign writers whose music is licensed by ASCAP in the U.S. [see also Per Program License]
http://www.ascap.com/licensing/termsdefined.aspx

[Localonthe8s]

They use BMI, not ASCAP.