BMI Licensing

As a BMI artist I think it would be swell if the money being spent for the license would help artist like myself .. but it don't and I wish my music was not under BMI due to the fact it limits who can play it. However if any of you want to play songs I have out there I will give you written permission. Take that BMI.

I have wondered if licensed artists are allowed to grant permission for performance of their music, and you've just answered the question, Lefty.

Only once I asked a singer for permission to use one song of hers, and never got a reply.

I think I should get royalty payments for having musical talent that I never use.

It would be like paying farmers to not grow certain crops.

Lefty, I am playing your tunes on our LPFM.  They sound great.  

Professional productions, definitley don't have the garage band sound.

Yep, I've had a BMI license for two years now.  Seems to me the first year was cheaper than this year but don't remember for sure.  Just trying to be extra special legal and above board.

Tim in Bovey

Hey Carl.

I don't know about the U.S., but in Canada, you can't play a song licensed with SOCAN unless you pay SOCAN fees, even if the original artist gives you permission.  Independents are another matter (i.e., not getting any money from SOCAN).

Artisan, I appreciate the caution, and also suppose that signed (with the several copyright agencies) artists here in America may also be limited in what they can agree to on their own.

I am steering clear of licensed music for economic reasons and because of my mixed feelings on the matter.

Foremost, artists should earn a living from their creative work.

At the same time there's a long standing point of view that radio play promotes music sales and benefits the artists, which reverses the polarity of the situation.

But either way, I am not fighting to have pop music on my station... fact is even if use were free I might not use commercial music.

More important, it's really not about what I'd do... I want to see small broadcasters get a fair arrangement for whatever they want to achieve.

My Music has been in ads and movies and yet I am getting something like $30.00 ...

I will never ever put any songs I write from this point on under BMI.

BMI , ASCAP are crooks who steal from people like me.

If you would like to have my real opinion on this subject please let me know and I will give you and ear full on Team Speak.  You could play it on you station as an interview with an BMI Artist.

Lefty, I know there is a "mafioso" element to the licensing agencies, and the artists are the prostitutes or sex slaves.

I am so tempted to have that TeamSpeak interview on the subject, but we are nothing but ants to be stepped on by the higher powers, regardless of what we say.

Notice that I've already gone too far in what I've said.

But how do you-all know I've "gone too far?"

It's because of your previous conditioning to "play by the rules."

The self righteous among us might even file a report.

Something so small as part 15 radio is actually the bottom of war zones intended to control information and influence.

Alex Jones is right on target with his "Info Wars" label.

The self righteous among us might even file a report?

let them file , I will be glad to kick their ass ... My Days of bending over for the EVIL SOB"S who are stealing from all of us is over.

What ? Did I get to serious ?

Lefty-

BMI may limit who can play the BMI licensed songs, in that they're limited to BMI licensed stations and other performance venues --- however is this really a limit? One song, played on, say a commercial station that is licensed by BMI, ASCAP, SEASAC etc in, oh, lets say Minneapolis/St. Paul, played once, will be broadcast over 3 million people. That same song, played 100 times on every Part 15 station in the country will be broadcast over a population of what, maybe a few thousand people all added together?  Kind of odd that it limits you from being broadcast on stations most likely to play it, but if a City statiion plays it it's broadcast to millions.

My Son is an ASCAP artist and I own an ASCAP publishing company.  I have documentation over the past 10 years showing his music played on dozens of stations, a few syndicated worldwide radio programs, and we can tell when he gets played on a show as CD sales on CD Baby and iTunes downloads quickly spike for a few days.  yet, after ten years we have yet to receive even a penny from ASCAP, although we get a quarterly report showing ZERO.  The trick of course is that he has to get played on a station that happens to be reporting at the time to even get into the mix at all. 

We did however license one of his instrumental tracks for use in a movie, and they found us through ASCAP. So, there's that. Few hundred bucks.  But it costs nothing to be a member of ASCAP and commercial stations won't even look at you if you don't belong to one of the Performing Rights Organizations, so it's a toss up -- be available to anyone with no chance of getting royalties or being played by majors, or join and only be on the little stations that join.

To me, it wasn't that big of a deal. I pay, I play. 

Tim in Bovey

We have wanted his work to be

recognized.  He is still very young.

It's complicated, I guess.

Bruce