Don’t fuck with Whitey.
Or at the very least, don’t mess with his music.
That’s the resounding, applause-worthy moral at the centre of the tale in which a British musician has taken a public stand against a TV production company asking for the use of his music for free.
You may have heard London-based musician and producer Nathan Joseph White’s music, under his non de plume of Whitey, on such popular series as Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, House, Entourage, CSI, and others. But his production credits and professional career meant little to US production company Betty TV, who apparently pushed Whitey one e-mail too far, as The Guardian reports.
The musician has named and shamed the American company – who produce “high-quality popular formats and factual” shows like The Joy Of Teen Sex , Promzillas, and Freaky Eaters – in a fiery online letter responding to their request for the use of one of his songs, without paying him a cent because they “don’t have the budget”.
Whitey calls bullshit, criticising Betty TV for abusing his craft while lamenting the industry’s “culturally ingrained disdain for the musician,” closing the cutting email by alerting the TV representative, known only as ‘Zoe’, that he will circulate the scathing correspondence online.
“I want a loud dialogue started in the music press about this shit,” writes the scorned musician in a Facebook post. “I’m sick of these people. I propose a collective blacklist of companies that play this shabby angle, enough.”
“I donate music all the time to indie projects, students and those who need it but cannot pay. But these people… ugh,” he adds.
Whitey’s sentiments echo what’s been a growing chorus of disgruntled musicians speaking out against the devaluing of music in the digital era. A movement that includes Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich of Atoms For Peace pulling music from Spotify while critiquing the streaming service’s business model, punk cabaret star Amanda Palmer, Talking Head David Byrne, and the Swedish Musicans’ Union threatening to sue record labels over poor royalties schemes.
A spokesperson for Betty TV tells The Guardian: “We use a collective licensing system that ensures both the recording artist and composer are paid. We apologise for any confusion and we have contacted the artist to clarify this. We would never use music without permission and going through the proper procedures.”
Read Whitey’s full shutdown letter below.
Hello Zoe
Firstly, there is no label – I outright own my material, so I’m not sure who you’ve been emailing.
Secondly, I am sick to death of your hollow schtick, of the inevitable line ‘unfortunately there’s no budget for music’, as if some fixed law of the universe handed you down a sad but immutable financial verdict preventing you from budgeting to pay for music. Your company set out the budget. So you have chosen to allocate no money for music. I get begging letters like this every week – from a booming, affluent global media industry.
Why is this? Let’s look at who we both are.
I am a professional musician, who lives from his music. It took me half a lifetime to learn the skills, years to claw my way up the structure, to the point where a stranger like you will write to me. This music is my hard-earned property. I’ve licensed music to some of the biggest shows, brands, games and TV production companies on earth; from Breaking Bad to The Sopranos, from Coca-Cola to Visa, HBO to Rockstar Games.
Ask yourself – would you approach a creative or a director with a resume like that, and in one flippant sentence ask them to work for nothing? Of course not. Because your industry has a precedent of paying these people, of valuing their work.
Or would you walk into someone’s home, eat from their bowl, and walk out smiling, saying, “So sorry, I’ve no budget for food”? Of course you would not. Because, culturally, we classify that as theft.
Yet the culturally ingrained disdain for the musician that riddles your profession leads you to fleece the music angle whenever possible. You will without question pay everyone connected to a shoot – from the caterer to the grip to the extra – even the cleaner who mopped your set and scrubbed the toilets after the shoot will get paid. The musician? Give him nothing.
Now let’s look at you. A quick glance at your website – http://www.betty.co.uk/category/factual-entertainment/– reveals a variety of well-known, internationally syndicated reality programmes. You are a successful, financially solvent and globally recognised company with a string of hit shows. Working on multiple series in close co-operation with Channel 4, from a west London office, with a string of awards under your belt. You have real money; to pretend otherwise is an insult.
Yet you send me this shabby request – give me your property for free. Just give us what you own, we want it.
The answer is a resounding and permanent NO.
I will now post this on my sites, forward this to several key online music sources and blogs, encourage people to reblog this. I want to see a public discussion begin about this kind of industry abuse of musicians … this was one email too far for me. Enough. I’m sick of you.
NJ White”
