Certainly the most thorough overview concerning rights to broadcast I’ve ever read. It makes me wonder about when pirate broadcasters get cited by the FCC, because I never hear about additional fines also being imposed by the music licensing groups jumping in, which seems surprising.
I totally agree with all the points made by TIB, and always have. But get the impression that most part15 broadcasters ignore it – which to be honest, I can understand why. Chances are nobody will ever come after you.
Nevertheless, when it comes to just the hobby broadcasters, right or wrong, if a compliant part15 broadcast ever got sued by BMI or the others, I would liken it to a kids lemonade stand getting shut down for not having a license or a health permit (which has occasionally happened) – such an action would be unreasonable and just plain wrong…. But the fact remains, under law, you’re required to pay.
So far as as I know, no part15 station has ever been persued for not paying royalties before, but there's always a first time, so it's wise not to just pretend like it doesn't apply to us.
Morning DJ said: There is also a line in the agreement that says: "...with a total input power to the final radio frequency that does not exceed 100 milliwatts..." What does THAT mean? I know of no low power AM transmitter that has a "total input power to the final radio frequency".
I agree that is an awkward way of saying it, but it sounds like it's still an accurate statement.
That's what happens when BMI's lawyers try to write an agreement that spells out exactly what they mean by Part 15, and try to adopt techspeak to legalspeak without an interpreter.
For other radio stations they simply refer to them as FCC licensed stations. That doesn't work for part 15, however.
TIB
There goes the BMI Long Wave waiver.
Good lord some of the music licensing rules are absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately, Tim is absolutely correct. I've heard of music reps hitting restaurants in the area for playing the radio in the store, quite a few of them would simply stop for about a week before turning the radio back on. In this area the reps have been largely ignored except by the biggest chains and stores that have actual jukeboxes.
In Canada, you CAN play a radio in a store, as the radio station is already paying the license fees. You can't, however, play a CD, or otherwise generate your own 'broadcast', unless you get a license yourself.
We also pay licensing fees for both songs AND performances - SOCAN is the licensing body for songs, and Re-Sound for performances. If you're going to archive and redistribute music, you also have to deal with the licensing body that deals with music reproduction (the name escapes me right now).
One of the positives about Canada, however, is that our copyright laws until recently were a lot less draconian. So there are plenty of songs and performances in the public domain (songs that entered into the public domain are not affected by the more restrictive rules brought into law in 2015 and by the TPP).
Although I was aware of the radio play and live band requirement situation in business establimshments, I've never actually witnessed or heard of any enforcement of it before. It's extremely common and I doubt most busisness owners have any idea at all that they are breaking any laws.
Over 40 years ago I was running a restaurant and we had a large room over the restaurant that was not being used at the time except for a few local functions. A singer approached me about playing music in the room week-ends. We were all set up with a bar, and food could be served, so we thought it was a good idea. The singer said he would even pay to run an ad in the local paper promoting him. Long story short....the DAY of his 'opening', a rep from either ASCAP or BMI--can't remember which, visited and demanded an annual fee. I knew we were stuck, so I paid the fee (much to the chagrin and dismay of the owner). The singer sang his songs over the week-end, and we never did that again--no more live entertainment. So, who benefited from that? NOBODY! (except, of course, the licensing company). We didn't have to hire extra help, the song writers got zero, so there was no 'win' to this at all. At the time I was also reminded that if even a customer so much as got up and sang we were liable to pay a licensing fee.
Everything Tim said above is correct....but the questions are: HOW DID THAT ALL COME ABOUT? HOW DID THEY GET ALL THAT POWER?
Hey, it can't be seriously denied that there is just as much destructive wrong involved within the law as there is outside of it. Legal and Legitament are by no means the same thing.
Or in other words, the law is just as crooked as anything else.
And how can it be that Ascap, BMI, Socan, Resound etc. are not arms of the government but private organizations with technically no powers of law enforcement, demanding money?
Mark
There's no simple answers. Law no longer exist as a purpose to protect and of serve the public, it's a tool of control. The monetary system is no longer backed by gold, it's now strangely backed by debt. Society is no longer governed by the constitution, because it has been modified so many times that it no longer exibits the strength of the principles of which it was create for.
It's been a long gradual proccess over the last few hundred years which has brought us to where we are today. Those having the most power of control got there by being cut throat and will continue to be cut throat to maintain and advance that power.
No simple answers why, and no simple solutions. Life just aint fair. You can ask how or why all you want.
EDIT -- But to answer your question without the drama.. Ascap, BMI, Socan, Resound etc. are businesses and you pay for their service.
Rich Powers said:
"EDIT -- But to answer your question without the drama.. Ascap, BMI, Socan,Resound etc. are businesses and you pay for their service."
They have to make their money somehow and what you pay for licenses goes to them first and a little to the artists that's left over....Private enterprise supposedly non profit, but we know that's not true, doing the governments work for them and the artists are getting ripped off because these licencing organizations take the majority of the license fees paid to them.
Mark
I have always wanted to ask the stores around here if they were licensed to play the radio while we shop. If i could silence that crap while i try to talk to my wife a foot away from me without having to yell at her, that'd be great.
Just because your store advertises with that radio station doesn't give you the ok to play the radio station over the store PA. Turn that garbage off and let me shop in peace.
Thank you.
"Private enterprise supposedly non profit, but we know that's not true, doing the governments work for them and the artists are getting ripped off because these licencing organizations take the majority of the license fees paid to them."
Well, that shows my ignorance.. I didn't realize any of that non profit status they have.
I just skimmed over an interesting article titled: "Why You Should Think Twice Before Joining ASCAP, BMI or SESAC – Part II: Non-Profit Nonsense" .I'm going read it closer later, but it doesn't surprise me, it just illustrates the same kind of crookedness that exist in most of the powerful enities we are required to heed to be legal.. http://www.mosesavalon.com/why-you-should-think-twice-before-joining-ascap-bmi-or-sesac-part-ii-non-profit-nonsense/
It just to much to dwell on, and opens a big can of worms. Bottom line is you decide if to operate legally or not.. either way you lose, but following the legal way is less likely to cause you damage.
I don't kow about ASCAP and SESAC, but BMI pays 88% of what they collect to the song writers they represent. They keep 12% to cover their operating costs. I imagine the others are similar. For the millioons of songs and writers they keep track of that doesn't seem unrealistic.
TIB