Emma kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t at all sure what they should do. On the one hand the deal Miranda offered seemed too good to be true. On the other, it wouldn’t be the first offer the band had been given that turned out wasn’t like it seemed at all. It wasn’t like any of them were ignorant, happy-go-lucky types that would be all joyous the first time someone paid them any attention. Not anymore. Maybe.
She glanced at Bruce. If there was anyone here who would object, wouldn’t it be him? He had objected to a lot of what Uncle John had suggested, and that was his own uncle.
Bruce wasn’t objecting. If anything, he looked intrigued.
“I don’t get it,” Tracy said. “You want us to play music for your advertisements? But we don’t do… what do you call them? Jangles?”
“Jingles,” Miranda corrected with no thought at all. “And that isn’t what I’m looking for, though if you happened to come up with a few I’d pay good money for them. No, what I want is just the kind of music you have going here.” She waved at the TV set behind her with the tape of their last gig still running. “I’ll pay the band as a whole five hundred dollars for each song.”
“You said we’d be recording in your studio?” Bruce cut in over Tracy’s furrowed forehead. “What kind of studio? What kind of equipment.”
Miranda started listing off a bunch of technical stuff that didn’t even register on Emma’s brain. All Emma knew was that Bruce was never wrong about equipment, and the longer he listened, the more he drooled.
“You don’t intend to use our actual songs for this do you?” It was Tracy’s turn to cut in. “I mean, all this that’s on the tape is our original work. It’s all copyrighted to us!”
“Yes. That’s what’s so great about it!” Miranda beamed. “It’s all original! But if you’d rather we could have you do some covers instead. I’ll bring a list of what we have copyright agreements for. You could choose from the list.”
“We aren’t a cover band,” Gene said firmly.
“Our original songs are worth a lot more than $500!” Tracy was starting to get a little red in the face.
“I’ll pay extra to cover the copyrights. It’ll have to be industry-standard rates – a percentage based on air time…”
“How fast would we have to work?” Justin brought that up. “School starts in four weeks. After that it would have to be on weekends or evenings.”
“I doubt it will take that long.” Miranda waved a red-taloned hand dismissively.
“Guys!” Bruce shouted. “Huddle up!”
Emma didn’t think twice. She popped out of her chair and walked across Gene’s den to where Bruce had jumped to his feet.
“This is a great opportunity! I’m willing to sacrifice a couple of the songs I wrote even if no one else wants to.”
“I don’t know,” Justin said cautiously.
Bruce stopped him with a spread-fingered gesture. “What I mean is that we will finally have access to top-notch studio! We could cut our own album.”
Everyone went thoughtfully silent. The hairs on the back of Emma’s neck waved around as if to say, “This is it! This is your chance at stardom.”
A full-blown daydream hit Emma. She could see herself on stage in front of a really big audience. Everyone was taking selfies. When she leaned down, the selfie sticks moved around to be sure she was included. At the end of a song she lifted a jewel case and announced the name of their latest album and suggested everyone run off to buy a copy in the lobby. A surge of people rushed the back of the auditorium in the desperate need to buy a copy. All because of this one chance.
“Oh.” Tracy’s eye went wide as if she could see the same thing in her head that Emma was seeing. “But…”
“We’d need a lot more than the equipment,” Justin interrupted. “We can’t just slip our songs in while no one’s looking, or anything.”
Tracy and Gene both nodded. Emma could feel her own head bobbing up and down, though that trace of dream still lingered.
“So we make that our deal.” Bruce grinned. “We give her the rights to use some of our songs, and she gives us everything we need to cut an album. After that we can use the money from CD sales to cover our rent and equipment.”
Bruce’s grin spread from one band member to another. Even Justin started smiling.
“Sounds good,” Gene said. “Who’s going to tell her?”
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6 Responses to Suzie’s House 458 : A Counter Proposition