MUSE
It began in February 1996. The first show was taped and edited. It began airing on public access television on August 17, 1996.
The show was produced inside the continental cablevision access studio in Palatine, IL on wood street. Since then, the studio s have all been closed. MUSE received many letters from fans asking to sit in on the live taping of it. But the studios were too small. So in 2014, we brought MUSE to the live stage as MUSE Live!, and began videotaping the shows, editing them, and submitting them as MUSE to public access cable vision stations. When COVID hit, the stations shut down all the studios permanently attributing it to the digital revolution and saying they were no longer needed. They also changed their policies on accepting material from access producers. Whereas, before COVID, a show could be submitted on DVD or flash drive into their system, now, the requirement is to upload the show to the internet and send them a link via email so they can download it.
We feel that by only accepting submissions via email links and requiring producers to upload their shows, circumvents the agreement that the government came to with the cable companies just before the digital revolution kicked in in 2004. Back then, the cable companies were required to provide studios, training, up to date equipment, and a dedicated channel for the local citizens to produce and air their own shows. This was put into place because the cable companies were laying their cables in the backyards around the country and the citizens felt they too would like to get on television, especially if they were paying to have those cables laid in their own backyards. In 2004 there was a case in NewYork which involved all the cable companies and they were required to back pay royalties to the public access producers who aired their content on this channel. We filled out a big stack of forms documenting every show we aired and when and how often it aired. We received a letter from a law firm in New York with the information saying ASCAP would be sending us a check. We never received that check. When we called ASCAP, we were told that they would never have sent such a letter to us, and denied knowing anything about it. Were we scammed? spammed? or what? Either way... fast forward to 2016, we received information saying that the copyright office is no longer protecting works on line because the theft is too rampant and they are overwhelmed with trying to protect the works and help the creators of those works. We were told that as soon as it leaves our desktop, into frequencies (wifi, blue tooth, IR, satellite, streaming, etc..) that we can no longer expect the copyright office's help in collecting royalties if someone uses our works without asking.
This means, that if we upload the show to the internet and send the cable companies a link to download those shows, that we lose our ability to ever collect royalties. So where does that leave us today? We still produce the live version of the show, and we still videotape it for the artists. We are currently not broadcasting it anywhere, because if we upload it, we cannot collect royalties for the show and therefore, one of our income streams is annihilated. Also, Comcast cable company out here in Elmhurst, IL, refused to accept any new public access shows during COVID (up to 2024). So rather than spend our time chasing grey rainbows, we are enjoying the live shows. If any one has any ideas on how we can safely broadcast this show again and how to actually be able to collect royalties for the artists performances, please contact us.
We have many upgrades and changes, in the shows behind the scenes work, and yet the inherent beauty of the show remains. We hope to see you soon.
Please check out MUSE Live! in person if you would like to see an awesome show!
If you have an urgent question, please contact us at emcy.fans@gmail.com Thank you for your patience with our website renovation process.