[Dixielandjazz] Re: ASCAP

[Stephen Barbone]

I tried to get on their website, but it keeps crashing my Mac. ;-) VBG.

As for Mike's post, JRM's experience is very well documented. As is the lack of
Black membership before Will's and my time. Who said anything about discrimination?
;-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve

willc wrote:

> I have not been an ASCAP member long enough to know whether there was ever
> racial discrimination in membership, and given the overwhelming dominance of
> Jews in it, I'm inclined to doubt it.  I do know that there was never a class
> distinction in membership. You either qualify for membership or you don't. There
> was a time when you could sign up as an "associate" but that didn''t get you
> royalties.
>
> Instead of fairy tales and supposition, girls, why not try looking at WWW.
> ASCAP.COM which tells all about copyrights, licensing, how ASCAP works, etc. BMI
> probably has a website, too. And you'll probably be able to contact Marilyn
> Bergman, a prominent songwriter and ASCAP president, who will provide you with
> facts.
> Kindly,
> Will Connelly
>
> Mike Durham wrote:
>
> > Steve Barbone wrote (extract):
> >
> > >Jelly Roll Morton's royalties? I think ASCAP did not let him join until
> > >shortly before he died. So, he never made much money at all on
> > >royalties.....
> >
> > >He may well have sold the licensing rights to his tunes for $100 each to
> > >some one else. (Melrose?), because there was no way for him to collect, but
> > >I do not know this for a fact.
> >
> > - In fact, Jelly was admitted a couple of years before he died, to ASCAP's
> > lowest possible category. He then left his royalties to Anita Gonzalez (tho
> > some say she wrote his last will & testament for him), and her estate still
> > collects them. However, the Melrose brothers wrote banal lyrics to many of
> > Jelly's published tunes, and thus got half the composer royalties as well as
> > the publisher's slice. Jelly was really mad about that (see the great book
> > "Oh, Mister Jelly!" published by Jazzmedia aps).
> >
> > Mike.
> >
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