"..The letter from US House Reps.. said that brick-and-mortar businesses that play music publicly, such as restaurants, bars, stores, hotels, and music venues, “have reported receiving demands for royalties.. It adds: “Considering that the possibility of substantial statutory copyright damages poses an existential risk for most bars, restaurants, and other small businesses, many feel compelled to pay these entities on top of what they already pay for blanket licenses from the traditional PROs.”
..While ASCAP, the oldest and among the largest of the US PROs, is a non-profit, the others operate as for-profit entities. In a sign that royalty collections are becoming big business, BMI converted to a for-profit model in 2022, and in 2023, it was acquired by private equity firm New Mountain Capital... after BMI’s switch, Billboard reported that “for the first time ever,” BMI’s financial report for the previous year “hardly contains any financial information.”... while non-profit ASCAP “gives you a pretty close look at what it costs” to administer royalties, “we didn’t get that information” from BMI.
The USCO has set a deadline of April 11, 2025, for written submissions for its inquiry into PROs. Written replies to submissions will be accepted until May 27, 2025.
Things are just as bad in Canada. There are licensing bodies coming out of the woodwork, each with their hands out. Music rights, performance rights, mechanical rights, reproduction rights, I'm sure I missed some. And to make matters worse, sometimes the rights overlap, so that, say, performance rights for one artist might be with one agency, another artist another agency.
That's why I'm going to an all public domain format (for both Canada and the U.S.). Two hours of early jazz & blues 1924 & earlier, two hours of popular music 1924 & earlier, one hour of mystery book readings and one hour of scifi/horror/thriller readings. A 6 hour block repeated 4 times per day.
In the U.S., anything released in 1924 and earlier is in the public domain due to the Federal Music Modernization Act (100 years for music, 95 for films and books). The book readings are from Librivox, which uses Project Gutenberg to determine the public domain status of books, and the Librivox recordings (by volunteers) are explicitly in the public domain.
In Canada, these music performances are in the public domain, as prior to 2015, performances were copyrighted for 50 years. It remains to determine if the music itself is in the public domain; prior to 2022, music was copyrighted for life of the composers plus 50 years. So if all those involved in the composition of the music passed away 1971 or prior, the music is in the public domain. I do extensive research for each song, identifying the composers, and their lifespan.
For books in Canada (up to 2022), copyright was life plus 50 years. So all works by authors who have passed away 1971 and prior are in the public domain. The Librivox recordings must be checked against this criteria.
It's a lot of work, but the big upside is that I'm not beholden to any organization. I can do whatever I want with anything in the public domain. And once something is in the public domain, it generally stays there, at least in Canada and the U.S.
I got a shake down letter once claiming royalty for something somebody did online in my cafe several years back. Attorney said it would cost more to fight it than what I paid, so I paid and settled. On the other side, back when I did forensic work I was offered a job to spy on bars and restaurants. The deal was to go eat there, listen, and report what songs played at places suspected of not having an ASCAP license. I didn't take it.