[Dixielandjazz] Copyright

[Bigbuttbnd at aol.com]

Thanks, Tom. Actually I wasn't the person asking that question... (it was 
someone named dixielandtom at comcast.net who happened to copy some of my post and 
your previous post together)... but you answered it thoroughly and saved me a 
boatload of typing!

(To the rest of DJML)
Here's what I THINK I know.... (Tom, correct me if I'm wrong). There are 3 
ways to collect income from WRITING a song: 
1. Publishing rights (the right to print the sheet music or record the song 
or use the song, as in a commercial)
2. Mechanical license (the license to record the music on a mechanical device)
3. Performance royalties (money paid to the composer each time a composition 
is played before a paying audience.)

All of these methods of income are guaranteed EXCLUSIVELY to the person who 
owns the Copyright of the song... or the right to copy the song.

The composer can assign thse rights to anyone he chooses and can sell as many 
or as few of these rights as he chooses... they are not necessarily bound 
together.

As I understand it ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are Performance Rights organizations 
intended to collect royalties every time the works of their members are 
performed... including via recordings broadcast on TV, Radio and Live perfomances. 
You can imagine that no system of paper organization could compute exactly 
whose works were being performed and whose works were not. TV was the easiest... 
since there were only 4 networks of any size until the 70's, their broadcasts 
were relatively easy to monitor. These organizations base their fees on how 
many people HEAR the music so television has some potential to rack up huge fees 
and therefore kept close track of which songs were broadcast (and licensed) 
and which weren't. 

Radio was a little tougher but they did keep a log of what songs were played 
so ASCAP, BMI, etc. would require these logs to try to determine what works 
were being played and how often and how much royalty was due to whom.

Live performances were impossible to keep track of. There is no way to 
monitor each live performance (or DJ play at a club or party) so some system had to 
be devised. Their solution was to TAX the venue (club, arena, ballroom, 
amusement park, etc.) based on how many people it held and its average attendance. 
They are ASSUMING that some of their covered music will be played at such a 
venue... but they have no idea who to give that money to. SO... based on the 
numbers they gather from TV and RADIO, they disperse the money to the folks who 
have the most airplay from those 2 lists. The same goes for money they collect 
from the sale of blank media.

This leads to quite a paradox.... the money they collect from you when you 
buy a blank CD and record some of your own OKOM is often going to today's latest 
rap group!

At some time in the recent past the bookkeeping required to monitor radio 
play became too much and, instead, they began to SAMPLE radio stations instead of 
keep track of all of them. Most often, the station used as a sample would be 
the largest (highest rated - most listeners) in an area. So now a system 
already tilted toward the biggest sellers became even more so... smaller stations 
that might play less popular music (jazz, folk, alternative rock, bluegrass, 
etc.) than the chart toppers of the day were ASSUMED to be playing the same 
stuff as the big guys (Which, of course, was wrong!) so even more money flowed to 
the big airplay guys and even less money flowed to the marginally popular 
composers who were members of ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc. but whose names were not 
showing up on anybody's list because their venues were not being sampled. Many 
composers, whose songs were played with regularity on radio (in smaller markets) 
were not collecting a DIME from the oranizations they employed to collect for 
them. The system simply does not work except for the few who happen to be on 
the top at any given time.

ASCAP, BMI and SESAC are performance royalty organizations and most MUSICIANS 
don't come in contact with them. Unless you're a COMPOSER who wants them to 
collect your performance royalties for you or you're the owner of a venue or TV 
or Radio station, you'll never run into them. The MECHANICAL LICENSE 
recquired to RECORD a song is bought (I believe) from the Harry Fox agency. It is 
generally a blanket license that covers so many copies (500 is the minimum, I 
think) and I think the fee is based on how many copies you EXPECT to sell, 
probably at something like .02 per song per copy. I'm sure someone else on the list 
has the latest figures here.

So.... the right to record a composition is generally granted automatically 
(a few composers, like Irving Berlin, varied from this formula) and a blanket 
license fee is paid IN ADVANCE for that license. ASCAP, BMI and SESAC enter the 
picture on behalf of the composer to collect performance royalties not from 
you but from the venue, radio or TV station where the composer's work is being 
performed. You don't pay them and their fees have nothing to do with the 
license you must pay for the right to RECORD a composition.

I hope this makes sense.

~Rocky Ball
Atlanta