[Dixielandjazz] Re: ASCAP

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/21/03 8:11:46 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
gwilliamoakley at earthlink.net writes:

> 
> Snippet: "The record of ASCAP in protecting composers in the 1920s and 30s
> is less than
> perfect"
> 
> I would suggest the record of ASCAP in its entire history is less than
> perfect. In all of my years in the entertainment business dealing with the
> thugs of ASCAP was my least favorite thing.  Negotiating with them was more
> like dealing with the Teamsters and you could always expect a veiled threat
> if you didn't see it their way.  And their way was always to extort as much
> money as they possibly could.  We stopped using "Happy Birthday" in our
> pre-show entertainment just because of ASCAP.  A thoroughly onerous
> organization.  A shame that a creative group such as composers has to be
> represented by such.
> Best,
> Bill
> 
Let's not forget BMI & The Library of Congress either folks, they are equally 
as onerous, all set up just to extort money from writers and composers, and 
owned and operated by a select few famous "organized composers"just to rip off 
songwriters.  And we also have SESAC which is big int he same business in 
Europe.

I once had a pianist songwriter working on tour with me in Europe who wrote 
ALL of the songs we were doing in the show, and when I was approached by the 
SESAC fellow to fill out a long form in Italian no less, listing all the 
compositions we performed and the authors of the songs so he could collect the 
"royalties for the songwriter."

I filled out the form and then took him over to the Pianist/composer of all 
the songs and introduced him, and asked him to please go collect the money for 
the songwriter and pay him while we were still at the venue.  He stammered 
that oh no you see it does not work like that I have to collect the money and 
take it downtown to our office and then we mail the money to the publisher of the 
songs who then will pay the songwriter.

I explained to him that the songwriter was the author and the publisher of 
all the songs, so he could save a few steps by just collecting the money from 
the promoter he was trying to extort and pay the man who is supposed to get the 
money on the spot.  

He of course refused, so I told the promoter of the concert what was 
happening, and wrote him out a contract excusing him from paying any royalties for the 
Original compositions that we were performing that night, since the 
pianist/songwriter of all of them was present and did not need permission to perform 
his own compositions, and that he was already being compensated to perform them 
from the proceeds of the concert.   

The Collection agent then tried to extort more revenue from the Records and 
Tape sales for the same reason, I had to turn one over and show him clearly 
printed on the back side of the recordings that the pianist also owned all the 
rights to the songs on the Recordings, and the publishing company, and the 
record label that released the material.  Therefore we do not need him to collect 
any monies for us that he will never pay us anyway.

After we finished the concert and left he collected his money from the 
promoter anyway by threatening to cause him problems at all of his other concerts if 
he did no pay.

We never got a check from SESAC for the tour performances either.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins