Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: But who do you pay? (long)

Author:Jim Stegman
Posted:8/4/2000; 8:42:45 AM
Topic:Needlepoint Copying
Msg #:19468 (In response to 19457)
Prev/Next:19467 / 19469

P.S. Sorry for the multiple postings... I got a (Netscape generated) error 3 times, & didn't realize that the posts went through... the errors were in the transmission of the result page.

OK, I checked some things out... There are at least 3 types of licenses:

Many outfits provide Mechanical licenses. The music publisher picks who they are going to work with. Here is one. If I want a license to press CDs, here is the formula to determine what I would pay. This formula is fixed in the US Copyright Act. The music publisher gets this money passed back, less a commission that ranges from 4 to 10 percent. They then pass it back to the artist after taking their cut.

By the way, you can get a "home license" to press no more than 1000 recordings to give away or sell. This may be unique to this particular outfit, in which case you can only use the artists he has signed.

Synchronization licenses are generally negotiated between the user and the copyright holder. This makes sense, since an artist may not want their music associated with something they object to.

Since it would be too difficult to account for every song ever played in every establishment, performance licenses are handled differently.

Three organizations exist to issue performance licenses. They are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Each artist picks one of the three to represent them. Then the organization pays the artist and their heirs after their death royalties based on a super complicated formula. Here is ASCAP's formula. Basically the organization tries to estimate the number of times each recording is played, weighted by the "commercial value" of the venue in which it is played. In simple terms, they pull a number out of their %^&. ;-)

If I run a restaurant, and want to play background music, I really need to get a license from all 3 organizations. Because if I only have a license from BMI but someone plays an artist covered by SESAC, I'm in violation of copyright. Each outfit has a hodge-podge of ways to determine what you'll pay if you want a license. For example, ASCAP charges about $150 per year if I own a retail store in Ohio that is less than 10,000 total square feet. For a restaurant, they want to know how many seats I have. Each venue has different factors that come into play.

Hope this helps.



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