Lynah Attendance

[Weder]

Depends on motive.  If they are innocently imitating, yes.  If they are driven by profit, every fan could protest vociferously and the ROI would still demand they do it.  MBAs cannot help themselves.

This is didactic to the point of incoherence! Organic and sincere fan outrage is an indicator of where the profit lies! This is why you speak up! It's not like there is some payola involved that gets Cornell a fee to play certain songs during the break; if anything there's an expense to playing canned music. I am plenty anticapitalist but what's the point of doomsaying action?

I would not be at all surprised to learn that some Cornell donor profits in some way from the licence fee for playing the canned music during games. Such is the world.

Semi-tangent that I've always wondered -- is the pep band covered under some sort of university- or athletic-department-wide licensing agreement?

Pep bands and marching bands generally pay a licensing fee per song directly to the song's publisher in return for the right to rearrange it, and that includes performance rights. So there's no need for separate payment to, or inclusion in someone else's agreement with, an aggregator like ASCAP or BMI.

And for what it's worth, to my knowledge, neither the organization of composers that owns ASCAP nor the PE firm that owns BMI has a Cornell alum in a high-level position.

Interesting! So is that potentially why it might take a while for the pep band to add new songs to its rotation? It's a budget issue?

[Beeeej]

Pep bands and marching bands generally pay a licensing fee per song directly to the song's publisher in return for the right to rearrange it, and that includes performance rights. So there's no need for separate payment to, or inclusion in someone else's agreement with, an aggregator like ASCAP or BMI.

And for what it's worth, to my knowledge, neither the organization of composers that owns ASCAP nor the PE firm that owns BMI has a Cornell alum in a high-level position.

Interesting! So is that potentially why it might take a while for the pep band to add new songs to its rotation? It's a budget issue?

Given that each song doesn't really cost that much - certainly not compared with uniforms and travel expenses - I doubt that's anywhere near as much of an obstacle as the fact that it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to arrange and learn a new song. And in Cornell's case, the pep band's repertoire is generally (though not exclusively) limited to a subset of the marching band's repertoire, which is partly because there's so much variation in pep band personnel from event to event. You don't want to be trying to play songs half the band hasn't seen before.

[andyw2100]

The DJ has to go.  Painful and repeatedly kills the organic energy.  Nobody needs random music blaring in the fifteen seconds before a faceoff after a goal for example.  Or during the handshakes after a playoff series.  Or... almost any time.

I couldn't agree more. Pretty sure most here agree. I just don't know what it would take for us to convince the powers that be to stop it.

Probably a few of us emailing the Lynah staff/AD staff would be enough to do it

It's certainly worth a try!

I'd be happy to start a thread here, where we can all post the emails we are sending. Wondering if it would be better to do it now, while the iron is hot, so to speak, or wait until after the season ends.

I just started the thread I promised to

The DJ has to go.  Painful and repeatedly kills the organic energy.  Nobody needs random music blaring in the fifteen seconds before a faceoff after a goal for example.  Or during the handshakes after a playoff series.  Or... almost any time.

I couldn't agree more. Pretty sure most here agree. I just don't know what it would take for us to convince the powers that be to stop it.

Probably a few of us emailing the Lynah staff/AD staff would be enough to do it

It's certainly worth a try!

I'd be happy to start a thread here, where we can all post the emails we are sending. Wondering if it would be better to do it now, while the iron is hot, so to speak, or wait until after the season ends.

Both! Now and if no response, again later.

Now is important because "the iron is hot" as they say. We just had the 3 best attendance nights in a while. And while it's ECAC and not all CU, they have to have seen the enthusiasm of the crowds.

Ok. I will get on it today. Look for a new thread later that will include my email as well as who I sent it to, (will do a little research on that first) as well as the call to action, suggesting that others write and possibly also share in the thread.

I just started the thread I said I would. It is here:

https://elf.elynah.com/index.php?topic=272999.0

[Weder]

Pep bands and marching bands generally pay a licensing fee per song directly to the song's publisher in return for the right to rearrange it, and that includes performance rights. So there's no need for separate payment to, or inclusion in someone else's agreement with, an aggregator like ASCAP or BMI.

And for what it's worth, to my knowledge, neither the organization of composers that owns ASCAP nor the PE firm that owns BMI has a Cornell alum in a high-level position.

Interesting! So is that potentially why it might take a while for the pep band to add new songs to its rotation? It's a budget issue?

Given that each song doesn't really cost that much - certainly not compared with uniforms and travel expenses - I doubt that's anywhere near as much of an obstacle as the fact that it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to arrange and learn a new song. And in Cornell's case, the pep band's repertoire is generally (though not exclusively) limited to a subset of the marching band's repertoire, which is partly because there's so much variation in pep band personnel from event to event. You don't want to be trying to play songs half the band hasn't seen before.

Gotcha. It's kinda nice to know that they are not gouging university bands (relatively speaking). But then again, I guess they're not playing any Beatles songs, either.