[Dixielandjazz] Re: Copyrights

[Richard Broadie]

I'm under the impression that ASCAP only collects for broadcast and wired 
music services and that live performances are not monitored.   Can anyone 
confirm or correct this?   Dick B.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Bigbuttbnd at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:18 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Copyrights


> Bill:
>
> I'll weigh in first. I'm NOT a copyright or music performance lawyer but I
> have a propensity for remembering some of this because twice in my music
> 'career' I've had to deal with the ASCAP/BMI/SESAC issue extensively.
>
> Yes. There are at least 3 organizations (maybe more) that separately 
> collect
> royalties for their composers: ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. SESAC is the easist
> (can't remember what it stands for) but they tend to represent composers 
> of
> religious (gospel, contemporary christian, hymns, etc.) music. In the bar 
> business we
> would simply say, "We don't play any of your tunes in here... the 
> customers
> get uncomfortable." That would generally send them packing because a bar 
> is not
> a high percentage place to collect for their kind of music.
>
> ASCAP and BMI together represent just about any composer (and therefore 
> any
> tune) that you can think of so they have the market sewed up. Both have
> separate fees. I seem to remember that ASCAP was considerably higher than 
> BMI. I DO
> remember that ASCAP was harder to deal with - less flexible -   than BMI. 
> We
> could pay a little and put off BMI some with sad stories of how bad we 
> were
> doing but ASCAP was not moved by any of those strategies... pay up now or 
> get
> sued.
>
> I think our fee to ASCAP was about $400 a year for a blanket license. BMI 
> was
> closer to $250 a year. This was between 1992 and 1996 and our nightclub 
> sat
> about 200 people.
>
> With regard to radio. My understanding is that ASCAP/BMI/SESAC (hereafter
> refered to as ASCAP) use a log system where each radio station keeps a 
> daily log
> of the tunes it plays. ASCAP only samples SOME of the radio stations in a
> given market and then totals those on a national basis to determine 
> exactly who
> should be paid and how much. For years the system has been flawed because 
> there
> were o too many radio stations to keep track of. Maybe Hank Williams got
> played on lots of stations that were not sampled and Michael Jackson got 
> played on
> lots of stations that were sampled... at the end of the quarter Michael
> Jackson might receive more money for airplay than he deserved because he 
> represented
> 10% of all songs played on sampled stations (and therefore, 10% of all 
> songs
> played!)   Since Hank Williams didn't show up in the sample, his estate 
> didn't
> get paid anything. Not very fair.
>
> Television seems to be handled differently. I've read that TV handles the
> royalties on a case by case basis - PAY AS YOU GO. You play "Your Cheating 
> Heart"
> on a TV show... Hank Williams' estate gets paid, and usually a much higher
> fee based on a much bigger audience. Merv Griffin wrote the "Thinking 
> Song" for
> Jeopardy so he could get paid every time it was played. Paul Anka split 
> his
> royalty for "The Tonight Show Theme" with Johnny Carson as an incentive 
> for
> Carson to use the theme.
>
> I have no idea what 'formula' ASCAP uses to determine who gets paid what 
> for
> live performances. There is no way to keep track of every musicians' 
> playlist
> at every venue in the country every hour and day of the year! So Michael
> Jackson is probably getting paid when we play a Jellyroll tune at a 
> concert!
>
> I'm all for composers being paid. But ASCAP needs to find a fairer way to
> determine what is being played and who should receive the money. Many 
> musicians
> (including some on this list) feel that the 'gray area' in this blanket 
> license
> crap is an open invitation for ASCAP to scrape a lot of money off the 
> top...
> and who would ever know? The 'formula' is so nebulous.
>
> I often hear musicians on this list relate stories about ASCAP coming 
> after
> them for fees, which surprises me. ASCAP's real leverage (other than
> knuckle-busting in a back alley) is through the courts, which consistantly 
> rule in their
> favor. In that scenario the collector is following the 'money trail', 
> looking
> for an entity that has assets, like a venue. Most musicians don't have the
> kind of assets that look attractive to a lawyer trying to collect big 
> money in a
> lawsuit. I've never heard of ASCAP going after the performers in a legal
> action... rather the venue owners.
>
> Well... that's all I know and it ain't much...
> ~Rocky Ball
> Atlanta, GA
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