Idolator
Music licensing companies like ASCAP and BMI have taken on high-profile clients who play music in their establishments without paying a fee recently, but don't think they've forgotten about you, small business owner! If you have any sort of music playing around your establishment, regardless of medium, you could be seeing fines and lawsuits in your future.
It makes sense that businesses would need to pay for the right to have music in their establishment; after all, the estate of Jim Croce deserves to get paid when Rich butchers "Time in a Bottle" at Common Grounds' open-mic Wednesdays. It's only fair. However, even when establishments try to do the right thing and pay for a license, the payouts may only be beginning:
Laurie and Jim Hall decided to offer live music on Friday and Saturday nights.
The performers...mainly covered songs written and made famous by other musicians. There was no cover charge, no pay for the musicians...
Then a few months later, music industry giant ASCAP started calling and sending letters saying East Coast Coffee & Tea was in violation of copyright laws. The fee to continue the music was $400 a year.
"At the time, the shop was losing money, so we had to break it up into payments," said Laurie Hall. But the Halls paid, and the music continued.
Six months later, other music copyright companies began calling the Halls and demanding money. Most days there would be three or four phone calls from each company, Hall said. Finally, unable to afford the fees, she had to call most of her musicians — those who did not play original music — and tell them they would not be allowed to continue performing....
[Lou] Andrus, the owner of Lou's Blues, said he has had many run-ins with the copyright companies over the years.
"It started 15 years ago when I had a guy come out to our other place, Cantina dos Amigos, and play Mexican music on his guitar on the patio," Andrus said. "They came after me for money. Are they really sending royalty checks to the songwriter in Mexico?"
Andrus said he pays BMI and ASCAP about $3,000 a year but is ignoring the smaller companies that seek royalties from him.
"There are so many damned companies you don't know who to pay," he said. "One guy called and said I had to pay him if I played any gospel music at all. It's really a mess."
While there certainly needs to be a system in which songwriters are paid for the public performance of their work, the system falls apart with the increasingly large number of rights-management companies and the commission-based sales people those companies hire to collect the license fees for music that might or might not be played at any given time. What's the solution? For many businesses, it's easiest to just stop having music, or purchase commercial satellite radio to avoid the various companies with their hands out. However, just ridding your establishment of performers might not be enough.
And in no way do the songs have to be performed live, or even on the radio, to elicit calls for royalties.
Andrus said a friend of his who owned a restaurant that did not feature music was contacted by a company looking to charge him because it owned the rights to a Hank Williams Jr. song, "Are You Ready for Some Football?" The song preceded every "Monday Night Football" telecast, which the restaurant carried on its televisions.
He said his friend simply chose to turn the volume down when the song came on.
Music licensing companies come calling for royalties [Florida Today]
Comments
The other day, I was whistling "I.G.Y" to myself in the shower. Next thing I know, a guy in a suit is telling me I owe Fagen $248. Seems fair. Thank god I wasn't whistling "Ruby Baby." Leiber and Stoller's guys are ANIMALS.
I wish there was a way to track the $$ and see if any of it does go to the artist, because I would bet little of it does.
There should be an update to copyright law. If you have music playing in the background on a stereo or jukebox and it isn't the REASON people come to your establishment, you pay no ASCAP fees.
Separate the music venues from hole in the wall bars and coffee shops.
I have to stick up for the PROs here - ASCAP, BMI and SESAC do a pretty good job of taking care of their writer/artists. They ARE NOT the bad guys - granted, they can be kind of square - but they're not evil. The RIAA on the other hand...
@BawstonSean: Evil, probably not, but when you rely on commission based sales people to determine who needs a performance license, there are bound to be some problems.
@joshservo:
well played, sir. well played, indeed.
if i didn't know better, i'd think it was the TV people that have infiltrated the music business and are running it into the ground to bolster TV's sagging popularity. but that would be IF i didn't know better....
@DanGibson: There are pretty clear guidelines as to who does/does not have to pay. Basically, if you're serving food and your customers can sit down, you have to pay. Retail and services are calculated by square footage and customer traffic. Music venues are calculated by capacity.
It's not as arbitrary as you think, but the PROs have done a shitty job of letting the retail/hospitality industry know how/why it works. PROs are the Moral Orel of the music industry.
Plenty of musicians actually do get checks from ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, so this is one fee that generally does get to the artist, provided they haven't sold/signed away all of their publishing.
God, this is really getting ridiculous.
That Monday Night Football thing is a joke, right? That couldn't have have actually happened. No one is that dumb, to charge a business owner a performance fee for something in a broadcast that a TV network already paid the licensing fees on?
Oh god.
Restaurants and many other types of businesses have been paying royalties to songwriters and composers in America (and in many other countries) for at least 100 years. This is nothing new. BMI's licensing representatives do not work on commission. Copyright law clearly defines what is a "public performance" and what is not. Singing in the shower, weddings, and birthday parties, for example, are not public. There are only three performing right organizations in America. BMI and ASCAP cover about 97% of all music played in public. Most music played on TV is copyrighted and subject to licensing, not just one song on Monday Night Football. Not all businesses need a license to turn on the TV or radio. It depends on the size of the business and how many TVs (and size) are used. A small business with just one TV or radio with six speakers or less typically doesn't need a music license. The details are in copyright law.
@jbailey: BMI may not be commissioned, but ASCAP's reps are:
[from their site]
# Moderate salary base with a generous monthly commission that can greatly enhance annual compensation total
# Commission may include: 10-30% of team revenue
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