Quote:
Originally Posted by scarecrow1
As far as the fees to the bars,they need to tell these associations to collect there fees from the bands. As a band they are playing the music that has copyrights, therefore they are responsible for the copyrights. The band is a private contractor that contracts their music with the club. If you are a DJ you have to prove you downloaded your music legally and payed a fee usually about 99 cents. When ASCAP or BMI asks about copyrights with my band I explain to them that we bought the sheet music for the songs and therefore had payed the copyright at that time. They leave us alone. It's a big shakedown and if you let them intimidate you they will. P.S. If it's too loud, your too old !!!!!!
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Having spoken directly to ASCAP recently, I can tell you that "buying the sheet music" does not give you performance rights. I'm surprised ASCAP would have asked about copyrights with your band, since ASCAP & BMI never charges the performer, always the venue at which a performance takes place. And as a performer, I don't think it's a shake down. It's the way the writers of the music get paid for their intellectual property. The venues are the logical place to charge for a number of reasons, some already mentioned in previous posts. Theoretically at least, if a venue hires a band or musician, even though the performer is paid, the expectation is that the venue is making even more of a profit than if they had not hired the performer. If not, they would cease to offer music.