KEYWORDS: music, family, tapes, mwm, world

Music Goes 'Round & 'Round, The--And Comes Out Here

David Berg

—At WS, WW or MWM! DO924 12 June 1980

Attention Family: —Warning!

1. WE CANNOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION FOR THE USE OF OUR WANT ADS OR PUBLICATIONS FOR YOU TO SOLICIT FAMILY MUSIC & tapes in English or any other languages for republication for your own personal benefit. Even though you may sincerely think & believe that you are doing it for the Lord & the benefit of the Family, & may even be doing it because you would like to get some of our music in Spanish, for example, & get it recorded on tape & distributed to people who prefer Spanish.

2. WE CANNOT CONDONE ANY PERSONAL PUBLICATION OPERATION OF OUR MUSIC FOR PERSONAL OR LOCAL PROFIT. Any such activities must be carried out in conjunction with a WS Unit, such as Music with Meaning or Wild Wind, or with our express written permission & approval. We request that anyone using taped or recorded Family Music in any language for any purpose whatsoever other than in your private Family Home for inspirational & devotional use, please inform MWM of your activities in order that they may coordinate your efforts with the main operation.

3. I AM SORRY, BUT WE CANNOT PUBLISH ADS SOLICITING OUR MUSIC in any language for republication or distribution by individuals known or unknown to us, in or out of the Family, for, as far as we know‚ their own personal private benefit. Although it may benefit part of the Family & they may try to sell these duplicated tapes for certain sums of money to individual members of the Family & some of the Family might benefit as a result, who knows who they are & what they may do with the music? They could be System thieves! How do we even know they will be bonafide reliable people who will mail you the duplicated tapes? They might just take your money & scotch off with it & forget the tapes & their customers!

4. —AS WE'VE WARNED BEFORE, WE CANNOT VOUCH FOR OUR ADVERTISERS UNLESS THEY ARE WS UNITS! The only people that the Family can rely on to be honest & reliable & give them good service & from whom they can expect to get their money's worth is from us, World Services, & our World Service Units, such as Wild Wind & Music with Meaning & their publications & tapes & our publications of magazines etc.

5. SO THEREFORE WE ARE QUITE LEERY OF SOME INDIVIDUALS WHO WRITE IN SOLICITING TAPES OF YOUR MUSIC in Spanish or your music in Portuguese, or say send us your music in Russian or send us your latest numbers, we want to publish these tapes for use in the Spanish-speaking World or the Greek-speaking World or whatever it is‚ so please send us your music.

6. WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO GIVE YOU OR THE FAMILY IN RETURN FOR THIS MUSIC? What's in it for the composers? What's in it for the performers?—What's in it for the recorders & distributors?—What's in it for you! I'm going to go to bat for the performers & composers & those who created it & deserve to get something out of it! What are they going to pay these people for sending them this music & what are they going to give them in return?

7. THEY COULD BE JUST SOLICITING YOUR FREE MUSIC & FREE TAPES TO REPUBLISH & SELL FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL BENEFIT, & we don't even know who the people are! (Maria: Even if their heart is in the right place, they may not even know how to handle the project.) We don't know if they have the capability or the equipment or know how to handle the duplication progress & mail-answering order-filling shipping service & all the rest.

8. WE DON'T EVEN KNOW IF THEY CAN DO IT! They can put a little $1 ad in the FN & solicit all this free music, & who knows what's ever going to happen to it? So it's kind of ridiculous for us to allow such ads, & I don't think we should allow them anymore. If the composers & performers want to send their music to us, WS, MWM or WW‚ & we think it's worthwhile, we could even perhaps offer them something to reward them for their contribution & efforts, just like we do the Komix artists.

9. PEOPLE WHO SEND IN MUSIC TO WS, MWM OR WW WHICH WE DEEM REPUBLISHABLE & worthy of recording & distribution, & which tapes we're going to give you for a donation‚ I think they deserve a little remuneration just like our Komix artists. We give our non–resident Komix artists rewards for contributing good Komix we hope to publish.

10. IT'S A GIFT OF GRATITUDE. We don't have to give it to them, we don't owe it to them‚ & sometimes they're not worth a great deal, but we do try to faithfully give them as much as we can for what we think it's worth for the amount of work they put into it—how many pages, how many drawings, how good it is, how much work it was, how good the art is, how much art there is in it or how much work is in it.

11. WE HAVE SOMEONE WHO JUDGES EACH KOMIX THAT COMES IN—including me!—Ha!—I study every picture & read every word & grade'm! I don't know if we're always doing it exactly right, but at least we're trying! Then we give them a gift in return for these contributions of their editing & art. Of course, I'm the author, but you're already taking care of me! GBY!

12. I THINK WE OUGHT TO DO THE SAME WITH COMPOSERS & MUSICIANS who send in good music tapes or songs which we can use & duplicate on tapes that we distribute. I think they should get something out of their creative &/or performing work if we think it's worthwhile. (Maria: But even if we couldn't reward them, they should be willing to do it for the Lord...) Yes, & they know that we're a reliable outfit that is going to really publish it for the Lord & is really going to distribute it faithfully & give the World good service.

13. IF THEY SEND US $5 FOR A TAPE THEY ARE GOING TO GET A TAPE, & not send it to some unknown fly-by-night outfit or individual that we know nothing about & whether they will ever see their $5 or the tape again! At least they'll know that they are performing a service to the whole Family which may be published‚ & the Family will receive it & they will get their money's worth & they will get their tapes, etc.

14. BUT IT'S A VERY RISKY BUSINESS TO SEND YOUR MUSIC & ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS TO SOMEBODY WE DON'T EVEN KNOW who promises to do something with it which we don't know whether they can or not or even will! I don't think we should publish such ads in the FN.—Sorry, but it's just too risky! (Maria: And in fact we strongly suggest that none of our people do that.) Yes.

15. SO WE HEREBY FOREWARN ANY PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO SOLICIT MUSIC THROUGH THE FN THAT WE WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT SUCH ADS IN THE FN‚ & that if they do wish to use Family music legitimately, they must contact World Services for our permission. We also strongly advise any Family members who already have read these ads in back issues that they do not send their music or compositions to these persons, known or unknown, whose capabilities & motives are also unknown.

16. IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE YOUR MUSIC OR ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS TO WORLD SERVICES, We will be glad to receive them & consider them, listen to them, judge them accordingly, assess their value as to whether we can use them or reuse them or adapt them or record them or distribute them or not.

17. AND I BELIEVE THEY'RE WORTHY OF A GIFT OF THANKS if we think it's worthy music, good music, publishable music that we can use in either our Family Wild Wind tapes or MWM radio recordings. If we & our musicians judge that your music is good enough to publish & distribute, then I would say they are worthy of a gift for their contribution—but we can't promise much.

18. WE DON'T PROMISE OUR KOMIX ARTISTS ANYTHING, BUT WE USUALLY GIVE EVERYONE SOMETHING who sends in anything that's worthy of publication, according to how much work they put into it or how much it's really worth. So I think we should have the same policy of a gift of gratitude for our non-resident (non-WS-Unit) musicians & singers & performers of the music arts as well as the graphic arts.

19. I THINK THE FAMILY KNOWS US WELL ENOUGH BY THIS TIME THAT THEY KNOW THEY CAN RELY ON US to know that we will try to do the right thing, the fair thing, & that the Family & the public are sure to get the goods & their money's worth if they order such tapes & music from us, & that we give reliable services & keep our promises & answer the responses to the ads.

20. IF YOU SEND US $5 FOR A TAPE YOU'LL GET THE TAPE, & if we promise to publish worthy music, it'll be published sometimes sooner or later, DV. Some of your Komix we've had on hand for a couple of years! We just haven't yet had time or space to publish them. In fact, some of them I haven't even had time to read nor approve of yet!

21. BUT RATHER THAN DELAY THE POOR ARTISTS IN GETTING THEIR GIFTS until I have time to read it or we have time to publish it, I have given orders that the non-resident artists shall receive a gift from us immediately upon receipt of the originals of their Komix by WS & the man & the team who judges them as to what they're worthy of, & how much they think they ought to send them for their work.

22. SO WE SEND THEIR GIFT IMMEDIATELY or at least within the month‚ so the poor artist won't have to wait two or three years till we have space to publish it or I have time to approve it! So I think that's very fair, as I don't want the poor artists that are working hard to raise their support to have to wait for it for years before they get it while we have their art in limbo!

23. SO I SUGGEST THAT WE SHOULD HAVE THE SAME GIFT POLICY WITH MUSICIANS & music artists & people who send us in good tapes of good music worthy of publication & distribution, worthy to be put on tapes for the whole Family from WW or the whole World on MWM shows.—And if you send in a gift, you'll get the tape!—And if the musician sends in the music & it's worth it‚ they'll get it published by us & some kind of a gift to show our appreciation for it & of which they are worthy.

24. NO ONE'S MAKING ANY MONEY ON OUR WILD WIND PRODUCTS. World Services merely gets Wild Wind's monthly tithe, which is not very great, & Wild Wind barely keeps its head above water in managing to pay their living expenses, expenses of equipment, supplies‚ duplication & distribution—& that's all they get out of it, just what it costs! World Services just gets their tithe, that's all.

25. SO WE'RE NOT MAKING ANY MONEY ON THESE TAPES WILD WIND PUBLISHES, & it'll be the same with Music with Meaning. MWM is now a WS Unit that gets a little help from us financially so they can keep going—just their actual expenses: Living expenses, studio & recording expenses‚ duplication & distribution expenses etc.

26. IF MWM SENDS TAPES TO THE FAMILY FOR A DONATION, THEN THAT MONEY WILL GO TO HELP WITH THEIR SUPPORT. If WS ever gets anything back on it at all, then we might in the unforeseeable future hope that they might be completely self-supporting so that we might get a little tithe out of them in the long run!

27. BUT RIGHT NOW, THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIRS, THEY ARE ALMOST TOTALLY UN-SELF SUPPORTING, giving all their time to the Lord's work. We have to support them & they are an expense to us, & we're not getting anything out of it but beautiful music for the present, which we love! GB'M!—And a radio show that reaches millions with the Gospel! PTL! So we're carrying the load in order to make it possible for them to work & record & duplicate Gospel music for both the Family & the World, now & in the future‚ hoping they'll eventually be self-supporting.

28. SO FAR WHATEVER GIFTS YOU'VE SENT THEM, HOWEVER GENEROUS‚ HAVEN'T EVEN COVERED THEIR TOTAL EXPENSES! So it's one of the most expensive WS Units right now, with the least income! We're getting a little help from your gifts, thank God, from you people who are interested in them & read their reports & prayer letters & feel that they are worthy of support & so send donations, & that's about the only income they've had.

29. FOR A WHILE THEY WERE EVEN WORKING 8 TO 16 HOURS A DAY AT CAFES & CLUBS playing music on contract as regular secular jobs, half the day & half the night, just to earn enough money to live on, & the poor guys were getting so drug out & strung out & exhausted where they could hardly have any time left for the Lord!

30. SO WE FINALLY OFFERED THEM A LITTLE on their expenses to help them have at least something to live on while they give their full time to the Lord instead. So they agreed & we agreed to do it, & now they don't have to waste all that time working for the System just to pay their expenses so they could do a few recordings for the Lord.

31. SO NOW WE PAY THEIR EXPENSES, or try to, so they can work full-time recording for the Lord, & they're doing a good job of it & making good tapes & we enjoy it, but right now we're not making any money out of it. It's pure expense. World Services is getting a few of your gifts to help on their expenses, but it doesn't even amount to one-quarter of their total expenses or less, what we receive in gifts for MWM. So right now it's nearly all outgo & almost no income.

32. BUT WE HOPE & PRAY THERE'LL COME A DAY WHEN MWM WILL PAY FOR ITSELF, for which we can be thankful! I'm thankful right now that we have enough gifts from you, the whole Family, that we can share with them their expenses. If we can just manage to keep far enough ahead to be able to help them live so that they can sing & play & record for the Lord‚ I'm happy‚ even if there's no other income through their work as yet. There are only a few gifts that come from you Family members who specify them for MWM.

33. SO THAT'S THE SITUATION: WE'RE NOT MAKING ANY MONEY OUTTA EITHER OUTFIT, WILD WIND OR MUSIC WITH MEANING! We just get Wild Wind's tithe, like yours & everybody else's. And we don't even get any tithe that I know of from Music With Meaning, because they are not making any money, & don't yet have any to tithe, as far as I know! Right now it's all outgo & no income, & we're helping to support them.

34. RIGHT NOW THEY CAN ONLY HELP SUPPORT US WITH THEIR WONDERFUL LOVE & BEAUTIFUL MUSIC—& WE LOVE'M! But we hope the day will come when their music will be of enough benefit, outreach & blessing to the World as well as the Family that it will pay for itself. That's all we can hope for & need.

35. WE'RE OUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, NOT TO MAKE MONEY. So if we can just make the Gospel pay for itself & pay its own expenses, then we're very thankful. Otherwise we're willing to pay the expenses as long as we have it, or as long as you Family send it in, thank the Lord!

36. SO WE'RE TRYING TO GET THEM STARTED NOW & its a big expense, a bunch of singers & musicians with big families & studio costs & equipment costs & recording costs & tape costs & mailing costs & all this sort of thing. It costs a lot of money, & right now it's one of the most expensive outfits we have, & right now we're getting very little out of it in return except a lot of good music, thank God! But we hope MWM will be a great enough blessing in the future that some day maybe it'll pay for itself, God willing.

37. BUT IN THE MEANTIME WE CERTAINLY DON'T BELIEVE IN YOU THE FAMILY SENDING YOUR MUSIC & ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS & RECORDINGS TO EVERY TOM, DICK & HARRY that we don't know anything about or who they are or what they are! They could be enemies! They could even be System recording outfits who are just trying to pirate our Family music, trying to steal it‚ record it, copyright it themselves & sell it & make money off of it, as far as we know! They've done it before!—We've already lost music that way! We don't know who the people are or who's asking for this music.

38. SO WE RECOMMENDED THAT YOU DON'T SEND THEM YOUR MUSIC, BUT SEND IT TO US, WS, MWM & WW, & if we think it's worthy we'll publish it, & if we can we'll try to send you a little gift in return for it to show our appreciation. We can't pay you for it, we could never afford to pay for what it's worth. Gospel music is priceless! How could you pay for it? How could you pay for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?—That's Simony! (Read Acts 8!)

39. SO ALL WE CAN DO IS TRY TO SEND YOU MUSIC CONTRIBUTORS A LITTLE GIFT OF THANKS FOR YOUR MUSIC TAPES.—And please try to record it on good equipment & good new tapes without background noise!—And for God's sake‚ get close enough to the mike so we can hear you! Practice till it's perfect, then explode on tape!

GBY!

40. THEN SEND IT TO MUSIC WITH MEANING & not some unknown, so you can be sure it's rightly used & rewarded accordingly!—Amen? They're the principal ones who'll be putting it together, recording it, copying it, distributing it etc.

41. MWM TAPES ARE GOING TO BE VERY POPULAR, AS THEY ARE EXCELLENT!—And anyone that wants to start a Music With Meaning Show anywhere in the World with MWM music should go through them & work directly with MWM.—And don't call it "MWM" unless it's MWM music!—Please!

42. THE BEST OF YOUR MUSIC THEY'LL PUT ON THEIR RADIO SHOW, & all other good Family music will be sent to Wild Wind for distribution; so, of course‚ there will be a difference in type, quality & costs.—Wild Wind will have bargains & Music With Meaning the top shows!—But of course, WW also has me, exclusively, so you can't top that! Ha!—To each his own!

43. SO SEND YOUR MUSIC TO MWM!—And your help too if you can!—They're the biggest Blob, we've had since the Chain!—Ha!—But they're worth it!—You never saw so many musicians with so many kids! Wow!—They're gonna take the World with all that Kid Power!—KP!—Ha!—They've got KP!—And they're not even in the Army!—Yes, they are!—God's Army!—Amen? Hallelujah!—So please help'm all you can!

44. THEY'VE HAD THEIR FILL OF THE WORLD & what it has to offer—fleeting fame here today—gone tomorrow—hair today—goon tomorrow, with all its carnal vicious lying cheating commercial carnivorous exploiters & their phony promises & album duds! They're sick of sitting around waiting for the World to discover'm!

45. THEY'RE SICK OF ITS HUSKS & SWINEPENS‚ & HAVE COME HOME AT LAST to their Father's house to play all their music for Him & His Family!—Amen? Hallelujah! GB'M! We love'm! They which were lost are found again & are once again giving their all for God! They deserve your support & your music!—Read Luke 15!

46. SEND IT TODAY!—To Music with Meaning, CPO 220, Athens‚ Greece‚ (Sorry, they cannot accept registered mail at CPO 220, Athens, Greece.)—DO IT NOW!—Tomorrow may be too late!—Thanks!—And God bless & keep your music for the Lord & His Family!—Amen?—Love, D.