Rock n' Roll Music

[dogtag]

So, the last couple of years, I've slowly built up a hobby providing oldies music at car shows. Lot's of fun
and people just love it. I even evolved my collection to include contemporary soft rock and a little rap to
some Country or a mix. Depends on the venue and the age of the crowd.
It's grown to a pretty big system where I was able to provide music to a 5 block area in a downtown venue.
It's kinda neat as all of my speakers are wireless and are completely self powered and have a half mile
range. Pretty cool.
While I was at a recent show, I met a lady who operates the tavern we held the show in front of and started chatting.
She says, " I play oldies music to the folks all the time as most of them are our age but I sure hate to spend the money on the license every year".
"License?", I thought!
After doing some research I find that even though I don't charge anything at the shows, I've been engaged in wholesale copy write violations.



No kidding. One promoter was even fined 150K for a flagrant
disregard of a court order to cease and desist. Whoa!!!
I've read a couple of articles on the subject so I know allot more now. Kinda put the fear of God in me.
One of the best I've seen is in a Seattle paper at this link;


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...royalty08.html


Well, to make a long story short, It looks like you can't even stand up in a public restaurant and sing "happy birthday" without a copy write violation or play music through an "on hold" phone system.
Pretty crazy.
Anyway, I Joined BMI and now have a Promoter/Presenter License and can legally play any copy write music in the BMI catalog in a public venue.
I've had to remove some of the non covered stuff I have but most are covered.
The rest are covered by ASCAP and one other.

I personally think that charity stuff should be exempt but I also feel the artists and composers should be paid.
shid! I'd want to be paid for my work, and with all of the ease of downloading now days, perhaps this is the only way they can collect on the Artists behalf....I dunno...maybe this is why things evolved this way.

I've tried to ask some of the DJ's at the shows I bring my car to about how they handle this "hot potato" and get answers that range from "fug off" to "it's the promoter or organizers problem".
Doesn't seem to be to much sympathy for the artist.
Most of the folks that organize these events don't have a clue about this issue and could be putting themselves at very serious financial risk according to the article.

Well, since then, I've got myself properly licensed and just mind my own business.

What have you guys experienced? I mean, I'm pretty conflicted about all this.

DT

[MonzaRacer]

I figure it this way if the system wasnt so dang greedy , buying the disc/tape is license to play it, what next little junior who buys every one of some groups records for hundreds if not thousands of dollars, will get sued and thrown in jail(or parents) for listening to his "system" .
Go figure on freedom. now if I buy a record and upload it to internet, yes it should be wrong.

[bigvegan]

What have you guys experienced? I mean, I'm pretty conflicted about all this.

If you're using somebody's material at a show, you have to pay the royalty or licensing fee. It's pretty much as simple as that.

Sure, people can cut corners, but the licensing fee is usually pretty reasonable compared to the cost of litigation, not to mention that you're doing the right thing, which always feels good.

I even evolved my collection to include contemporary soft rock and a little rap to some Country or a mix.

This should make the folks on the "old coots" thread happy, as apparently people are getting a little fed up with hearing doo wop all the time.

[WS6]

It's not money to the artists for playing their song. It's money to the record companies. I bet most artists out there would say they are happy you are playing their song at whatever local event and not care about the royalty. Go ask the record companies and they will be pissed.

Keep this in mind. The artists don't always own their songs. The Beatles's songs were owned my Michael Jackson who bought them out from under Paul McCartney. Now that Jacko has died, Sony gets the songs. Any time you want to use a Beatles's song, Sony is getting paid not the surviving members let alone the person who wrote a great deal of their songs that made them famous, Paul.

The record industry is so F'd up it's up there with the federal government. The RIAA is who is so upset over music downloads. The RIAA is made up of the record execs not the artists.

[69stang]

I do sound, video & lighting with a couple other guys at my church and we have to do pretty much the same. We record the services also so sometimes there's additional issues depending on the particular song. Been told before a service not to record a certain song.

[dogtag]

Good point, Roger;
One of the exemptions is Worship. You don't have to worry about
paying if it's during a service or in an educational setting like teaching
music.
They do stipulate that if you record a service that this is not covered.
I suppose the rules are very cumbersome and a pain in the ass but
I'm trying hard to comply.
My big worry is the guys that sign me up to play at their event.
I would just crap if they got sued over something I did.

So, anyway, when my music plays on the speakers at the event, you can look at the player and it scrolls the name of the artist, the name of the song and the BMI catalog number.

Can't go wrong there.....LOL

Dogtag