ASCAP, the big one, has threatened to shut down the national Electronics show unless all participants pay a licensing fee for every time a stereo or TV was demonstrated.
I understand paying writers and performers for the public use of their material; I just Don't understand how the hell the formula works.
As a practical matter, there is a list of charges for each venue, based on number of seats, number of hours of live music, number of musicians, occupancy rate...lots of variables. And, everything is negotiable. I know club-owners paying half what someone with a similar place does.
Reps are overweight gangsters.
It's a sad part of the business. In really busy places; usually restaurants, I tell owners not to put my name in the paper in a section called the "Weekender", which carries the listing of all live music venues.
That worked for years, until a little guy who subbed for me called a placed his name in the paper himself. That was over 10 years ago, and the $7700.00 fee is due same time every year.
Recently, an owner with three nice places just had enough and stopped 5 night music completely. Who did that help?
Russ
Edited by captain Russ (04/14/17 10:03 AM)
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