Free Strum Again? Book Three of the Songkiller Saga by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

SWALLOW agent was expected to be. He was possessed of
a good memory, a firm grasp of mission, a knowledge of the law, a
knowledge of music, and the self-assurance that would help him
convince others of his arguments and would allow him to intimidate
them when necessary. Just an edge of self-righteousness was also
required, and this particular agent had more than his share of
that. Since he was English by birth, he also possessed a touch of
international glamor that impressed a lot of the small-town
operators he had dealt with in the course of his career.
    Lately, however, despite the fact that
he traveled constantly, his work held less thrill for him than
before. He couldn't think why that was. He had been effective—that
was clear by how seldom he had to talk sternly to radio stations
and restaurant and bar managers to impress upon them the gravity of
hiring entertainers who performed songs protected by—or even
worse, not protected
by—SWALLOW.
    Protected songs, of course, could not
be performed, except by the licensed artist, without royalties
being owed to the artist through SWALLOW. The royalties were paid
as a flat fee by the clubs and radio stations on a monthly basis.
Then SWALLOW distributed them on a proportionate basis, with the
top artists, like Duck Soul, taking the lion's share of the
acquired "dues." The money was a fairly hefty amount for people
like Soul. Well, back when there were people like Soul, it had been a hefty
amount. It never had amounted to much, if anything, for the
lower-echelon artist. There were no longer any of those either. In
fact, Graham supposed that mostly the dues were pretty much split
between SWALLOW and Soul these days.
    In case anyone else tried to play unauthorized music,
however, Graham knew the rules: (1) Unprotected songs were not
supposed to be played in clubs that paid the fees. (2) Any artist
who wished to perform had to likewise pay a fee to SWALLOW (a) to
protect his or her interests with the clubs, (b) to license the
material, and (c) to collect the fees. (3) Under the new laws each
artist was also supposed to pay royalties every time he or she
performed songs by other licensed artists. The only way to escape
this clause was by singing only one's own licensed material. Even
material that had previously been considered in the public domain
was subject to licensing laws since an individual artist's
arrangements were considered the work of that artist. So unless
substantially altered—and the alterations had to be authorized by
SWALLOW—an arrangement of a traditional tune that was not an
authorized, much-altered version fell into the same category as an
entirely new song.
    Furthermore, there were now the obscenity
laws SWALLOW enforced. Those laws were why Hugh Graham ultimately
decided that a posting in America would be a better career move
than remaining in Britain or on the Continent. The laws were
difficult to enforce in Britain. Itinerant folk clubs, often
composed of amateur musicians or mere fans, drifted like floating
crap games (to use an American idiom) from pub to restaurant to
private home, providing entertainment often without benefit of
money or contracts changing hands. People played pirated music and
unlicensed songs at parties that SWALLOW was sure involved some
sort of fee, but since SWALLOW representatives were not invited to
the parties, they had not been able to find out where and when such
violations occurred.
    Graham was flying back to the home office
listening to a Duck Soul tape—after all, he had gotten into the
business because he loved listening to music. Since he was a top
SWALLOW agent, and his salary was supplemented by commissions that
were bounty on the fees and fines he collected, he sat in first
class, drinking the fashionable beer he favored. He was a short
man, but trim from afternoon workouts in hotel and motel rooms, or
sometimes at a gym, track, or park when the neighborhood looked
safe. He'd started working out in the afternoons