Photo credit: Brendan Kownacki
Grab your blankets, flags and your personal cooling fans and head on down to the mall tomorrow to celebrate the 4th of July “Concert on the Mall” where music meets the magic of Independence Day featuring legendary singer, songwriter Smokey Robinson – think “Shop Around,” “Ooo Baby Baby.”
Robinson will lead the “Motown Tribute Concert,” the 44th Capitol Fourth concert live on PBS, held on the West Lawn of the Capitol. It’s free and open to the public. It will also air on PBS and stream on YouTube at 8 p.m. ET.
This takes us back to “He’s Back.” Back to 20016 at GRAMMYs On The Hill where he speaks out on the status of music rights in the digital age. We’re trying to get a backstage pass to find out what AI is doing to the recording business.
Photo credit: Courtesy of SmokeyRobinson.com
Each year, the Recording Academy bands together artists, songwriters and advocates to bring the fight of the music industry to Washington DC to showcase the important issues surrounding an industry that touches nearly everyone around the globe. Motown legend Smokey Robinson came to DC to sound off about fair compensation for artists and songwriters and make sure that as the industry evolves into the digital realm that everyone who contributes to a song is compensated and that just because a song is online does not make it free.
“With the advent of what’s going on online – people downloading your music for free – it’s almost like putting you into bankruptcy,” GRAMMY winner Smokey Robinson told Hollywood on the Potomac. “What your work is, they get it for free. It’s like if you went out and all the cab drivers, all the bus drivers and all the people that work in the building were doing it for free. People put their lives and their efforts into music, so they should be compensated for that.” No worries though, the 4th of July concert is free.
Robinson speaks out backstage at the GRAMMYs.
Filmed and Edited by Brendan Kownacki
