Dear Rockers - Paying Back Musicians

Julie and her sister submitted letters for Cobra Starship, and here’s their story:

Instead of mailing them, we gave our letters to Alex the bass player after the show in Boston in January and he read them, and then he wouldn’t take our $$…Which kind of defeated the purpose, but he didn’t care. The band supports people who download their stuff and they don’t care how you get it as long as you listen. The other photo is us with Ryland the guitar player and Victoria the keytar player (it was her b-day, that is why the tiara). They were really nice and their shows are a lot of fun! We’re going to go see them again this summer on the Warped tour, which will be a lot of fun as well!!

And here are their rockin’ letters:

Dear Siobhan Donaghy,
My copy of your album ‘Ghosts’ was given to me by your record label, but you deserve the cash, quite frankly.

Here is £5. Thank you for the music, the songs you’re singing.

Love,
ChartBlog

Dear Noel,
Here goes. Confession time.

I pilfered the vinyl of Definitely Maybe from Salford HMV in 1994. I
don’t even live round there - I’m a “soft southern twat” lol - but I
needed to prove how hard I was to my mates so I got a saver return
for the day and travelled “oop north” to commit the crime. I was
going to hitch, but it was a bit blowy out that day, plus I’d heard
there were dreadful roadworks around the M6 area.

Anyroad up (as you Mancs say !) I’m now a comfortably off Exec in
the music promotions business and I’ve seen first hand what havoc
such foolish actions as my youthful misdemeanour can wreak upon the
welfare and profits of the often under rewarded artist, such as your
goodself.

Soooo…*deep breath*…here’s recompense. Only minor, but it’s
something, eh?

Enclosed, please find:
US$1.90
GBP£1.51
and one Indian Rupee (Liam can probably fob this off in the fag
machine in his local boozer)

All this ought to add up to the fair and princely sum of US$5 if
we’re going by the current exchane rate of 1.946871. You can do the
maths yourself.

Actually, you probably can’t, can you?

Yours Empathically,
Phil. M. Riot

Dear John Mayer,
I have taken it upon myself to download “Any Given Thursday”, my excuse: your albums are very expensive here in México, but don’t worry I’m saving money for the new DVD with the 3 awesome performances this last december, John Mayer Acoustic, John Mayer Trio and John Mayer and his Band.

Thank you so much the for the beautiful live version of 3×5. So like I told to Maroon 5, I don’t have dollars so I will give you 100 pesos, and I don’t have change either so don’t forget give me back my 50 pesos, I need the money to buy the upcoming DVD you know?

With so much love
Ana

My Dear Maroon 5:

I have taken it upon myself to download the 7 bonus tracks from the album “It Won’t be soon before long”, but like someone else said: “don’t expect any empty apologies because I’m not really sorry”, and that’s for a simple reason…

…iTunes doesn’t work in México, so how the hell do you think (a loyal fan and M5 music lover) I’m gonna get the b-sides?. Also I have confess that this aren’t the only bonus track that I downloaded, like Rag Doll, my favorite song.

So in resume, I blame you for not include the tracks in the new album (that I paid) and don’t have more options to get them, but “por si las moscas” here are my five bucks anyway. I don’t have dollars so I will give you 100 pesos, and I don’t have change either so don’t forget give me back my 50 pesos.

With so much love
Ana G.

PS. I will not send you the letter because I want that you all, Adam, Mickey, James, Matt, Ryan and my lovely Jesse come for the money and this way, at least, finally you dare to visit México and the rest of you South American fans.

Note: Sorry for my English. I’m learning with the help of your beautiful songs.

Dear Pink/Shaggy/Natalie Imbruglia and other headliners at the 2002 Rumba
Music Festival (Perth),
I have a confession to make. I snuck not one, not two, but three of my friends into the concert. I must explain my actions. My friend (lets call her E) was promised free tickets by a guy doing security at the concert. He lied and no tickets ever came
about. I used my other friends’ tickets who had actually bought tickets to sneak my three friends who were waiting outside and
convinced the bouncer to let them in.

If they didn’t get into the concert they would have been in a lot of trouble because they lived at the boarding house at my old school. I am not giving money because I enjoyed the concert - (because it sucked major balls) - I am giving money back because I am a nice person. Because there was more than one artist playing at the concert, I have decided to split my $5 into 20 cent pieces and photocopy this letter to each affected artist.

- Celia (aka killabot @ killabot.wordpress.com)

p.s. The concert was good in one way - I realised how crap the music was and started to listen to real bands!

Dear Mr. Lee,
Over the past year or two, I have taken it upon myself to download the entire Rush discography. Granted, since then I have purchased or received some of the albums, my favorite being Hold Your Fire. However, it still stands that I acquired most of your music at no cost to me. For that reason, and because you guys absolutely rock, here is a token of my appreciation that should have been yours in the first place.

~Jason

Dear, Mr. Rose,
I’m sorry, I hope you won’t invite me to “get in the ring,” but I downloaded some of your soon-to-be-finished songs from the soon-to-be-released Chinese Democracy. It made me feel good, it made me feel cheap and it made me feel guilty. So in return, I wanted to give you back the $17 (one dollar for every year you have spent polishing this gem in the studio/writing/recording/ranting). We all know that this is going to be the greatest album of all time. (Sorry, Kid Rock). Please forgive me Axl. I know it is wrong for me (even as one of your biggest “straight” fans) to listen to your music prematurely – before you are happy with each version. I know that this is the last thing you would want to happen. So in return, please use this money to fund the following to help get this masterpiece completed.

• the cost of hiring a new guitarist
• the cost of firing a new guitarist
• the cost of remixing your vocals till it sounds like you are putting your leg in a woodchipper while strangling a cat.
• applications (printing costs)
• lawyers & accountants
• stack of blank CDs (the re-writable kind)
• Buckethead’s buckets
• Hate
• octagon (for solving disputes)
• Calvin Klein Cologne
• the rights to the word “bee-yatch”
• extra recording time for “RANTS”

Best Regards,
Jeff

Dear Sufjan,
I am writing to apologize for my blatant pirating of your Christmas music, and to offer you payment in lieu of me buying the EPs through legal and ethical means.

You see, a couple years ago I caught wind of your 3 “Hark! Songs for Christmas” albums and was able to download them for free off of some random blog I’ve since forgotten. I enjoyed the songs very much (”I Saw Three Ships” and “Once in Royal David’s City” being my favourites) and I even sent a few mp3s to my mother by email, though I’m not sure she knew how to play them back then (she didn’t have an iPod yet). In any case, I listened to them faithfully but I never sent any money your way, though I put some of the blame on you for not coming through town often enough so that I may pay you in person.

Normally I feel little shame in downloading music for free, due to my distaste for the DRM restrictions on mp3s from various online vendors. However, in this case I must hang my head, for I later found your collection of (now 5) Christmas albums on eMusic, and I only bought the songs I didn’t already have.

Therefore, I am sending you a $5 bill. It was left over from a recent trip to Oregon (have you heard of Oregon? It’s one of the 48 states you haven’t made an album about yet).

Kind regards,
Gillian

Dear Jack,
I have a confession to make. A friend burned me a copy of Brushfire Fairytales. I loved it, but also downloaded your other albums. Sorry. Here’s $10 (for the last 3 and for the next).

I love your music but I don’t buy from the RIAA. I especially like “Mudfootball”, “Times Like These”, and “No Other Way”. Keep it up and tour Japan so I can give you some more money. Luke.