[Dixielandjazz] ASCAP, BMI, etc.

[Scott Anthony]

I agree partly with what you are saying IF the money exchanged was being 
distributed to the actual composers or, preferably, ORIGINAL, copyright 
owners of the tunes we are likely to be playing.

However, from what I've read recently, the money collected is no longer 
apportioned by these organizations according to the individual tunes that 
are played. The formula for distribution to the copyright holders apparently 
now is based on local radio play time. So, in San Francisco, for instance, 
where there is no longer any real radio play time for OKOM, the money 
collected from a venue basically goes to the composers of the rock and 
country tunes being played locally. I'm sure it is a more complicated 
formula than what I just stated, but that is essentially what happens. It 
doesn't matter what tunes you play, whether they are PD or not, or whether 
you wrote everything yourself. They'll still come after the venue if you 
play them there.

For example, I read about one local bar in Noe Valley (part of San 
Francisco) that hired a singer-songwriter who played ONLY his own tunes, and 
the three organizations still demanded payment, which the bar owner refused. 
They took him to court and won and practically put the owner out of 
business. This definitely does not seem equitable to me.

One result of the heavy handedness of these folks is that venue owners are 
reluctant to hire live music of any kind anymore in this area. As soon as 
they advertise "live music," someone from ASCAP and BMI show up with a bill. 
The local pizza place I played in for tips for about a year would not 
advertise and hence not pay anything because he already had to pay $350 a 
year just to play CDs and the year he paid Burt Bales to play piano one 
night a week, he got charged about $350 from each of the organizations. He 
decided he could not justify an extra $1000 a year for a place that only 
holds maybe 60 customers.

It seems to me to be a pretty dumb, "shoot yourself in the foot" way to 
handle things. One possible solution I thought of was to find a local 
sponsor to start a live performance trust fund that local venues that wanted 
to play OKOM could apply to for at least partial help in paying the fees. 
Another would be to pass some of the responsibility to the musicians by 
offering $20 a week to the venue in exchange for a long-term contract to 
play.

Scott Anthony




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "eupher dude" <eupher61 at hotmail.com>
To: <santh at pacbell.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Dixielandjazz Digest, Vol 59, Issue 45


>
> I've finally formulated thoughts which have been nagging in the back of my 
> little brain for a while.
>
> We, the performers, bemoan the loss of income due to competition from 
> other genres, low pay from the buyers, lack of venues willing to pay for 
> ANY live music, etc etc ad nauseum ad astra alan arkin.
>
> Why, then, do we bitch and moan about ASCAP and BMI and SESAC when they're 
> doing what their members want them to do?  After all, if it wasn't for 
> ASCAP and BMI there would be almost NO money exchanged for any 
> performances or recordings, and what would happen to the recording 
> industry?  Would you let a song be recorded and performed freely, live or 
> recorded, with absolutely no possibility of compensation for your work?
>
> It's up to the MEMBERS of ASCAP, BMI SESAC, whatever others might be out 
> there--the ones who thos organizations represent--to make those 
> associations accountable to the membership (I hope I'm using the right 
> vernacular to describe the people represented by the groups.)  Without 
> them, without the powers of enforcement those organizations have by way of 
> the assent of their members and the laws concerning copyright,
> we would have diddly squat to play ourselves anymore.   At least as far as 
> new music goes.  OKOM wouldn't suffer a lot,  but  since  a lot of tunes 
> are still covered by publication rights etc, there would be a lot of 
> backlash.
>
> Think of it--if a venue had to pay EACH rights owner separately, the costs 
> would be much higher.  Did anyone have a 10m satellite dish, where you had 
> to get separate scramblers for CNN, ESPN, USA, TBS, and every other 
> popular station?  They weren't that expensive, maybe $5 apiece, but for 
> everything it was maybe $40 or more a month.
>
> Now, the small satellite dish networks do it all, cover the rights to the 
> networks, for a lot less than that.  And,  a lot more variety of channels 
> is available as well.
>
> It's up to those who SHOULD be benefiting from ASCAP et al to get the 
> proper benefits.  In reality, IMO, we're on the same side, just different 
> angles to center.
>
> Yes, I know, the problem is corporations.  What to do about the 
> conglomerates that own rights to songs but don't pay royalties to the 
> composer/lyricist/arranger/recording artist.  Again, if business is taken 
> care of properly, there's no issue, either you get the money or not, and 
> if not, go to court.  Easy to say, maybe not so easy to do.
>
> But, that's the way it is.  We can work with it to make it better, or 
> ignore it and watch everything built up over 50-60 or however many years 
> implode.
>
> steve 'a load off my mind' hoog
> _________________________________________________________________
> Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live.
> http://www.windowslive.com/connect.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Wave2_newways_112007
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz 
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>