Comments on: Coffee Shops Getting Copyright ‘Shakedown?’

By: Bean Guy

Bean Guy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:22:28 +0000

I wonder if “jbailey” defender of ASCAP, can tell us how the Little Guy songwriter is compensated for his/her work in writing a song that was played in a coffee shop. No? Here’s how. He’s not. ASCAP/BMI and others pay zero compensation to songwriters based on what’s played where. After all, without submitting a playlist every week, how would they know who to pay? So they go by radio airplay. If your song gets played a lot on, say, Cleveland radio, then you get paid. If your song only gets played at bars in Evansville, Indiana, and never gets on the air, you don’t get paid. So let’s quit giving ASCAP accolades for getting just compensation for all the hardworking songwriters out there and call it what it is…a shakedown. If they really wanted it to be a fair system, they’d license the performers, by song, no matter where they played. But most bands don’t have any money, so they wring it out of the coffeeshops and bar owners. They are killing the music industry by taking away small venues that will play obscure music.

By: axlman

axlman — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

“The music industry already managed to destroy physical CDs and record stores is it now trying to kill off the ubiquitous coffee shop guitar player as well? I wonder if they realize that in doing so it will just further increase the demand for digital music via a portable music player listening alternative and thus hasten their slow inevitable slide into irrelevance as music distribution entities.”

Awww. This really comes down to a bunch of loosers (The RIAA) afraid of that they will have to start working at the local Burger King.

By: Sparky9

Sparky9 — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

They have been doing this for years.

By: jbailey

jbailey — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Music licensing in these businesses has nothing to do with the record companies or the RIAA. BMI and ASCAP operate on a non-profit basis paying about 87 cents of every dollar collected to songwriters and music publishers. Many songwriters publish their own songs. Businesses that play music in public in America as well as in most other countries have been compensating songwriters in this way for more than 100 years. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled back in 1917 (Herbert VS Shanley) that restaurants must pay songwriters even if the business didn’t charge directly for the music. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled that all uses of copyrighted work even those for which a specific fee was not charged required compensation. To paraprase Holmes if these businesses did not profit from the music they would not offer it to customers. This is nothing new. This is how songwriters earn a living and they deserve to be compensated for their work as much as anybody else. There will always be business owners and others who want to use music for free but I don’t agree with that. Most songwriters don’t do concert tours or sell T-shirts and most don’t record. They may not have great voices and may not be good-looking but they do have creative talent. They have a right to be paid for the pleasure they bring to our lives.

By: Boomer The Dog

Boomer The Dog — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Just because a way of doing things has been around for 100 years doesn’t mean it’s the best way for today.

By: TronixA

TronixA — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

I don’t think they charged $3000 a year either back then.