They're coming for our music, cher! You won't believe this
Okay, baby, so you know how New Orleans is, right? We got music pouring out of every door on Frenchmen Street, every second line rolling through the Tremé, every corner bar in the Bywater. It's the heartbeat of this city, pure and simple. So when I tell you that a national music licensing group, ASCAP, is suing a French Quarter bar, Garage Music Club, for playing copyrighted music without permission… well, that’s like trying to tell the Mississippi River not to flow. It’s wild, baby, just wild.
### What This Means for New Orleans
This ain't just about one bar in the Quarter, where, let's be real, a lot of places play whatever they want. This is bigger. ASCAP is a big deal, and they went after 11 venues nationwide last week. This could really shake things up for all those small clubs, the ones that give our up-and-coming musicians a place to play, the ones keeping the blues and the jazz alive when Bourbon Street is just playing pop hits.
* **Financial Hit:** Small venues, especially after everything we’ve been through, can't just drop big money on licensing fees for every song. It could close doors.
* **Cultural Impact:** If clubs can't afford to play a wide variety of music, we lose some of that beautiful, messy, spontaneous sound that makes New Orleans *New Orleans*.
* **A Wake-Up Call:** This might force a lot of our local spots, from the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak Street to those little dives down St. Claude, to really look at their music practices.
This city runs on music, baby. It's how we celebrate, how we mourn, how we just *are*. From the funeral parades that dance our loved ones to their rest above ground, to the brass bands playing 'til dawn, it’s all connected. To even *think* about putting a damper on that, to make it harder for our musicians and our clubs to share their gifts? That's New Orleans, baby — we bury our dead above ground and keep the music below, and we're gonna fight to keep it that way.
Mo’s got the real talk every morning, where y’at? Tune in live at mornings.live.