Don't know really how this popped up in my mind, but I was just on hold now with my bank, and they were playing a Mozart piece as the hold music. After I hung up, the melody lingered in my mind and I thought "how nice to have that as hold music...much better than being on hold with United Airlines and having that annoyingly redundant UA theme playing." Then I thought "well they use their theme so that they don't have to pay royalties...." THEN I thought, "wait a minute, who pays Mozart HIS royaties? More importantly, where do they go? Who gets it? Does he have any relatives? I mean the guy is 250 years old and died in poverty, buried in an unmarked grave...how DO they track these things down? Is he with ASCAP or BMI? Or is he just a special case? And further, what about Schubert, Brahams, Chopin, Hayden and Beethoven and all the other guys? Do they have living relatives? If so, where are they and do they have a myspace page??"
Anyhow, a rather long string of thoughts that I have no answer for, only speculations and provocations for further inquiries this early morning...
