Time to Pay the Piper’s Performing Rights Fees
I own a tiny coffeeshop and have always enjoyed having local musicians play at the open mic every weekend. It builds a great sense of community to support these young musicians. Now BMI says I have to pay them money. If that’s true, I’ll have to shut down the open mic, because I can’t afford it.
Small venues and music festivals often call me with the question: Do I have to pay those BMI or ASCAP fees? The answer is... well, yes, you should, and the real problem is BMI and ASCAP's organizational attitude towards small and non-profit venues, not the fees themselves.
These performance fee collection organizations fulfill a vital role for musicians. They collect royalties from all the venues where copyrighted music is played -- radio stations, cafes, juke boxes -- and pay royalties to their member musicians. If you are a musician, join one of these entities, and you'll start getting checks in the mail from them. Granted, if you're a local New England folk band, those checks will be in the pennies range. But they will grow -- and you never know where they will lead. My retirement-age folk musician friends get checks from these entities sufficient enough to pay, well, at least part of their beer bills.
If BMI and ASCAP didn't do this, then each musician would have to monitor millions of play lists and send bills for their royalties each time one of their original songs or copyrighted arrangements was played--and we know that would never happen. BMI and ASCAP work on a simple principle of fairness and to prevent exploitation -- if a bar or restaurant is making money, i.e. selling food and liquor, by enticing in customers with MY music, then I really should be getting paid. They are making money off of me, and I deserve my due. But as in many ethical situations, the way it works on the ground is more complicated.
In order to pay the musicians their due, BMI and ASCAP collect annual fees from any venue with a jukebox or live music. (If you play the radio, or television, or Pandora, in your establishment, those entities pay the BMI and ASCAP fees.) Those fees are not too high compared to, say, your liquor license -- but one big problem is that the cheapest fees are not cheap enough for the tiny New England open-mic coffeehouses that provide a venue for music more as a community service than as a money-maker. All-volunteer festivals, nursing homes that have local bands come in and play one day a week, and non-profit teen centers with open mics all should be paying royalty fees to the musicians whose work is performed there--being a non-profit or not charging money for an event does not exempt you from copyright laws--and the easiest way to do that is to pay BMI and ASCAP. But often these venues simply don't have the do-re-mi.
Then comes the attitude problem. The sales reps from BMI and ASCAP often approach venues with an arm-twisting attitude: Pay or we'll sue. This leads venues to despise them or at best begrudgingly pay while mumbling about what jerks these folks are. Maybe this works in New York City, where venue owners are used to protection rackets. It's counterproductive for community coffeehouses and church concert series in small northern New England towns.
I wish that BMI and ASCAP would:
Offer very cheap fee structures for nonprofit and small community ventures with, say, under 30 seats--better yet, get sponsorship from those muti-million dollar entertainment industry giants and offer free membership for these nonprofit and tiny ventures. This will bring more venues happily into the fold, encouraging the spread of live music, and getting the musicians who play at such things a leg up into the music performance industry.
Provide all venues, but particularly small and nonprofit venues, with a publicity packet that helps the venue tell the world that they are contributing, through BMI and ASCAP, to supporting musicians. Why not some, 'we support live music' decals, bumperstickers, t-shirts; why not some digital logos that can go on all the venue's posters and advertisements announcing live music? Make these entities something venues and musicians are proud to join, instead of a necessary evil.
Hire some new salespeople, and get a new attitude that SUPPORTS the small end of the music industry scale, rather than serving as a strongarm for the mega-industry end of things.
But, that said, coffee houses and music festivals do indeed need to pay these performing rights agencies. It would be good for performers to learn more about these organizations; to join one or more of them to ensure that, when owed, you get your payments; and to encourage and educate local venues about the importance of paying the fees.
Local businesses can also help by sponsoring the fees, especially for music festivals; my law office sponsors the performing rights organization fees for the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival, for example. We all need to work to ensure that venues can continue to feature live music, and that musicians can have avenues to collect their fair share.